HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution No. 4738
RESOLUTION NO. 4738
A RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE CITY OF EUGENE'S
COMMITMENT TO RETIREMENT SYSTEM REFORM.
The City Council of the City of Eugene finds as follows:
A. The City of Eugene is a local government that provides police and fire protection,
streets, sewers, recreation, parks, and other needed and essential services to the citizens of the City
of Eugene within the corporate limits of the City.
B. The City of Eugene carries on and provides these needed and essential services with
a dedicated force of public employees whose retirement is covered by the Oregon Public Employees
Retirement System (PERS).
C. The PERS retirement system provides these retirement benefits under state statutes
and Administrative Rules. The PERS Board has treated employee and employer contributions
differently and unfairly, causing unfunded liability, risk, and inequity between City contributions and
employee contributions.
D. The City is a lead complainant in a law suit against the PERS Board to address some
of these inequities.
E. The City has experienced a $68 million dollar liability to PERS because of these
inequities and other issues. The most current PERS estimates of the City and other government
employers unfunded liability is continuing to climb causing financial hardship on the City and the
taxpayer.
F. The state statutes also mandate that retired public employees be carried on the City's
group rate medical plan causing a large increase in City medical cost.
G. The City of Eugene Budget Committee passed the following motion by a 14:2 vote
on May 22,2002: To support any method the City deemed necessary, including but not limited to
legislation, litigation, and interaction with the PERS board and staff to pursue solutions that would
provide a benefit for the City employees that was comparable to pension benefits to other
jurisdictions in the northwest and which is funded by stable, predictable, and sustainable sources of
funding.
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NOW, THEREFORE, based upon the above findings,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EUGENE, a
Municipal Corporation of the State of Oregon, as follows:
Section 1.
The City reaffirms the right of its employees to an adequate retirement plan.
Section 2.
The City reaffirms its suit against the PERS Board to:
(a) Recalculate and use current actuarial tables for PERS allocations;
(b) Treat employee and employer contributions equitably;
( c) Fund the Contingency Reserve as required by State Law;
(d) Credit realized earnings to account balances; and
( e) Other causes of action.
Section 3. The City strongly urges that the State Legislature change State Law to make
clear to the PERS Board that the assumed interest rate credited to Tier I retirement accounts is based
on actual income received from PERS Fund investments and is not based on reports of equity or
equity market values that can both rise and fall.
Section 4. The City strongly urges that the State Legislature change State Law to
eliminate the requirement of mandatory medical coverage of retirees in the current employee medical
group plan.
Section 5. The City reaffirms that it will work through all available means to accomplish
the herein reforms at all available forums including the City's Intergovernmental Relations
Committee, League of Oregon Cities, and our current law suit. This resolution shall be forwarded
to all members of both houses of the State legislature.
Section 6.
This Resolution shall become effective immediately upon its adoption.
The foregoing Resolution adopted the 12th day of August, 2002.
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City Recorder
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