The most vocal opponent against changes in Atlanta’s pension program is accusing the administration of playing fast and loose with the numbers, while there's still debate over key documents for a pending lawsuit regarding the employee retirement plans.
Jim Daws, president of the Atlanta chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said while Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed continues to say that the employee pension program is only 53 percent funded, the actual number is closer to 70 percent.
“The numbers they keep quoting are wrong,” Daws said.
Daws said Reed has been using an old figure, which was more reflective of the down economy. “The market has rebounded to almost 70 percent funded," Daws said. "The ideal funding rate for a pension plan is not 100 percent. It is 80 percent and we are almost there.”
Peter Aman, the city’s COO, acknowledged that the figure is no longer 53 percent, adding that he and the mayor have been revising their languageto reflect stock market growth and a stronger portfolio of about 63 percent -- still a long way from 80.
“If 53 percent is pancreatic cancer and 63 percent is lung cancer, both will still kill you. One will kill you in four to six months, and the other will kill you in 18 months," Aman said. "The notion that the recent stock market improvements and the associated increases in the funding level have minimized the need for pension reform is stupid."
Reed’s quest to change the city’s pension structure and efforts by unions and employees to block it seem to get tenser by the day, as a lawsuit looms.
Eight months ago, John Sherman, president of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, filed a lawsuit arguing that changes the city made in 2001 and 2005 to the pension -- increasing the pension payouts to police officers, firefighters and general employees -- were illegal because they were not supported by financial impact studies or actuarial studies.
Sherman said those documents do not exist, because the city has failed to produce them as part of the court case.
Aman said while the city is still searching for the 2001 documents, he produced two August 2005 letters from the city’s then-CFO and city attorney acknowledging that the financial impact and actuarial studies had been conducted for the second round of major changes.
He said those documents have been available to the media, Daws and Sherman. While The Atlanta Journal-Constitution viewed these documents Monday, Sherman said he has not seen them.
In a meeting Monday with the AJC, Daws showed what he said was a letter dated July 11, 2005, from former city CFO Janice Davis to former Finance Committee chair Debi Starnes stating that she was providing the financial impact and actuarial studies, for the proposed 2005 changes.
“The CFO gave the council a letter that Sherman says doesn’t exist, in which she included the financial impact of the changes for all three employee groups, as well as the actuary study,” Daws said.
Sherman has been skeptical of all of the documents.
“If Jim Daws had all of these papers, the case would have been dismissed months ago," Sherman said.
It is unclear if Daws' documents are the same documents as Aman's, since he would not provide copies to the media. Aman said what the city provided to the AJC was official.
About the Author
