Firefight: Atlanta firefighters turn up heat on taxpayer group

By Steve Visser

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Firefighters know how to turn up the heat when a citizens advocacy group tries to water down their retirement.

They plan to continue to picket the Fulton County Taxpayer Foundation because of its lawsuit challenging the city of Atlanta's pension plan, said Lt. Jim Daws, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 134. He said the union will use all legal means to pressure the foundation and its members in hopes of derailing the lawsuit.

"We didn't pick a fight with them. They picked a fight with us," Daws said Thursday. "They are trying to find some technicality to chisel firefighters and their widows out of their pension benefits and we consider that a dastardly and a despicable act."

Members of the foundation, largely based in Buckhead, filed a lawsuit earlier this year saying the city failed to follow its guidelines when it changed its pension fund over the last decade to allow firefighters, police and city workers to retire with as much as 80 percent of their income after as little as 27 years of service.

Critics, including Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, say the changes risk bankrupting the city because the unfunded pension liability has skyrocketed to $1.5 billion. However, a special panel convened by Reed in February blamed the bulk of the increase, an estimated $652 million, on the poor performance of investment funds, saying the benefit changes contributed only only an extra $160 million.

Now the firefighter union has decided to tackle the foundation head on, which has resulted in protests in public streets, letters from lawyers and accusations of intimidation.

Foundation Chairman Joe Kelly said he was stunned to see pickets at a foundation luncheon where Reed spoke last month.

"I would never have expected to see firefighters in the middle of West Paces Ferry [Road] yelling at cars. I would never have dreamed that but they did," said Kelly, a lawyer. "When you start going after the money, it gets to be tough and if you don't want to be in that area, you don't do that. But we did."

Daws accused the foundation, which since its inception in 1992 has often criticized government spending and taxes, of pursuing an ideological crusade at the expense of firefighters and other city workers who depend on their pensions.

"If you cut taxes in half tomorrow, this group would still be trying to lower taxes," Daws said.

Foundation Executive Director Barbara Payne, however, said the firefighters have made her fear for her safety. She said she has been besieged by e-mails and phone calls from two firefighters in search of the nonprofit foundation's membership lists and tax information. Payne said firefighter tactics have intimidated establishments such as the Cherokee Town and County Club into canceling foundation events and may have caused at least one foundation board member to resign because of threats to picket his restaurants.

"We've had to change our day-to-day procedures at the office because we are not comfortable ... because of the e-mails and phone calls," Payne said. "They are coming after us and it worries me."

Ed Higginbotham, a retired fire department battalion chief, said he sent the e-mails and made the calls requesting the nonprofit tax information and its membership lists so he could educate members on how the lawsuit would impact firefighters, who considered the strong pension a trade off for lower pay.

"Barbara Payne said it wasn't a malicious lawsuit," he said. "Well, you're talking about taking away a third of the pension that was promised.

"If you look at the people on the foundation's board of directors, most of those people have always supported public safety and they're not seeing the big picture."

The foundation refused to turn over the information, claiming he wanted to harass its members, Higginbotham said. He said a letter from the foundation lawyer suggested he harassed the staff.

"In no way did I talk to anyone in a disrespectful tone ... and  I can produce all the e-mails I sent. In every one of them, I was extremely polite," Higginbotham said. "I don't think they are giving credit to the people who served them for so many years. And I don't think they reflect public opinion."