Facing a skeptical group of senior police officers scared about changes in their pension plans, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed told them that they didn't have to trust him, but should rather look at his track record.
“You earn trust over time, but who has spent more money on police than I have,” Reed said later. “I am not asking them to trust me. I am asking them to judge me by what I do.”
Reed and city COO Peter Aman held a closed door meeting Thursday afternoon with police officials to discuss pension changes, which may be less than three months from becoming a reality.
At times, said some who were inside, the mood grew tense.
“There were a lot of emotions,” said Ken Allen, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers. “There are a lot of officers whose future and livelihoods are in the cross hairs.”
The city is currently considering two options that would reduce Atlanta’s annual pension costs, which take up 20 percent of the city budget.
Neither option would have an impact on benefits a city worker has already earned. But going forward, benefit packages would be impacted.
“I know this is hard,” Reed said. “That is why we are spending time on this. But we cannot wait any longer. I want to make promises that we can keep.”
Atlanta’s pension problems are similar to what many other large and small cities nationwide are facing.
Only 53 percent of the current plan's liabilities are funded and since 2001, annual pension costs have gone from $55 million to $125 million. Reed has estimated that if nothing is done during his administration, the current $1.5 billion unfunded liability could grow by another $4 billion over 10 years.
Reed is hoping to get the budget changes approved by the City Council by July, in hopes that the new plan would be included in the 2012 budget. Allen said that timetable is too tight and wants to hold off until at least 2013.
“I don’t believe that the pension is in that bad a shape,” Allen said. “What we need to do is control spending and bring in additional revenue in the city. Bring in greater solvency for our pension issue instead of changing it.”
Allen stopped short of saying that officers would abandon the city for other municipalities if pension reform is passed, but the notion worries Police Chief George Turner, who said that any reduction of force would be “a challenge to us.”
“When you start talking about making decisions like this, people get emotional. But I am encouraging officers to make wise decisions,” Turner said. “Don’t make a decision based on flawed information.”
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