Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins said during a Thursday meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Pensions that he would like a plan for the underfunded police and firefighters pension by the end of the year.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Pensions listened to two presentations on October 12 about the state of the pension fund given by Dallas Police and Fire Pension System officials, who said the pension system is only about 41% funded. They also claimed it could be over 60 years before it is fully funded, according to KERA News.
The biggest issue has been that the pension system has an unfunded liability of $3 billion, and City officials must present a plan to state pension regulators by 2025. The current plan would leave retirees from the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue unable to receive a cost of living increase until at least 2073, per Fox 4 KDFW.
Any plans submitted to regulators must show how the City plans on fully funding the pension system within a “period of less than 30 years.” City officials have known about the issue for years and have failed to meaningfully address it.
Atkins, who serves as the committee’s chairman and represents District 8 on the City Council, directed the committee to start developing a plan, hoping to have one much sooner than the 2025 deadline.
“I am sitting here as the chair and I have to come up with a plan in 12 months,” said Atkins, per KERA. “We’re going to have some kind of plan before the end of the year because six years is too long … for someone to have that doubt out there.”
Council Member Paula Blackmon (District 9) was chosen to lead the effort.
“People have been looking at this for a while, so nothing is a surprise,” Blackmon said, speaking with KERA. “It’s just working through the problem to seek solutions, then getting it done.”
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) said during the meeting that everyone on the committee should be “shocked” and should “say this is unacceptable,” according to Fox 4.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, DPD has fewer than 3,200 officers on staff, even though a City report recommends that 4,000 officers are needed. The staffing shortage has led to alarming police response times in recent years.
Much of the criticism for the pension fund’s shortfalls was placed on former pension executive director Richard Tettamant.
Tettamant spent a significant amount of pension money on risky investments before departing in 2014, such as the $200 million spent on Museum Tower, per Fox 4.
“So, [Museum Tower has] been a drag on our fund. Selling these assets in a responsible way, so it’s not a fire sale and we’re not taking bigger losses than we need to, the board has spent a lot of time doing that,” explained Executive Director Kelly Gottschalk, the current head of the pension fund system, according to Fox 4.
Although committee members chided pension officials for doing little to nothing, City CFO Jack Ireland claimed many officials have been working hard to improve the fund’s standing.
“We’ve been doing things that would shore up the funds, that would improve the funds’ assets and contributions through pay and number of officers,” Ireland claimed, as reported by KERA.
“So we needed some time … I don’t think we have sat back,” he said.
