City officials will try to restart talks Friday with the Jacksonville firefighters’ union over benefit changes that an influential task force says are critical to reform the city’s pension plan.
Scaling back annual 3 percent cost-of-living increases for current and new police and firefighter pensions was a key recommendation made last month by a task force appointed by the mayor. But making that change, as well as others recommended by the group, represents a daunting first-term political challenge for Mayor Alvin Brown, who will face highly skeptical union officials on the other side of the bargaining table.
A meeting with the police union is scheduled April 25.
The upcoming talks could ultimately prove fruitless.
Union officials have already thrown cold water on any proposal that changes retirement benefits for current employees, saying those promises are outlined in an agreement that runs through 2030 between the city and the Police and Fire Pension Fund.
Randy Wyse, president of the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters, said he plans to repeat his long-held position Friday that the city can’t collectively bargain with the unions because of the 30-year agreement and must instead talk to the pension fund about any changes.
Chris Hand, Brown’s chief of staff, said he is nonetheless hopeful for a “positive and productive back-and-forth dialogue.”
“We need to move quickly. This very stubborn issue has been hanging over the city for a long time,” he said. “There’s a need for speed for many reasons.”
The pension-reform task force recommended scaling back the 3 percent annual benefits in pensions to a maximum of 1.5 percent for current and new employees. That change could significantly reduce the amount of an officer’s total pension payment, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases.
The task force is also calling for police and firefighters to pay a larger share from their paychecks for their pension, increasing in stages to 10 percent from the current 7 percent.
Those employee sacrifices would be matched by an additional burden on taxpayers under the task force’s recommendations. The group also wants a tax increase so City Hall can pay down faster the $1.7 billion it owes the Police and Fire Pension Fund for the city’s obligations.
Brown and the Police and Fire Pension Fund reached agreement last year on changes that included smaller pension benefits for new employees. That proposal didn’t alter the pension benefits that current police and firefighters can earn. The City Council rejected that proposal, saying it didn’t go far enough.
Nate Monroe: (904) 359-4289