Police, Fire Pension Fund, City Still Far Apart

Time is running out for the City and Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund managers to agree on a way forward to keep the pension plan solvent. 

Kelly Gottschalk, executive director of the pension fund, spoke with Fox 4 KDFW about her efforts to save the fund after bad investments by the previous director and boards nearly bankrupted it. State law requires that a permanent plan be submitted by November 1, 2024.

Here’s some of what Fox 4 reported about where the two sides are at:

DALLAS – There are now fewer than four months for the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund and the city to agree on a plan to make sure the pension remains solvent, but in a one-on-one interview with the executive director of the fund, we’ve learned the two sides are still far apart on many issues.

“We feel it every time we go to the grocery store,” said retired deputy chief David Elliston.

Elliston spent 38 years with the Dallas Police Department, but now, with no cost-of-living adjustment in nearly eight years, his pension check doesn’t go nearly as far.

“It does feel like it’s a broken promise,” he said.

Kelly Gottschalk, the Executive Director of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension system, says she knows the issue has been painful for members.

Gottschalk was hired in 2015 to help save the pension system after the previous director and board’s bad investments nearly bankrupted the fund.