Pension Woes Could Leave CSPD / CSFD Shorthanded
Colorado Springs city employees, particularly firefighters and police officers, will be anxiously watching the new administration for budget decisions that could affect workers’ paychecks.
“We’re continually taking home less money than we were making four years ago,” said Jeremy Koto, president of the local firefighters’ union, IAFF Local 5. “Our health care premiums have increased and our pension contributions increased 2 percent. But we haven’t had a pay raise in several years.”
New Mayor Steve Bach said one of his objectives is reducing how much the city contributes to employee pension funds and health insurance plans. Now, an advisory group of business leaders agrees by presenting Bach with a list of recommendations.
The group said the city can save $24 million annually with a 2 percent employee increase for public safety worker pensions, and a hike of 14 to 20 percent in insurance premiums for all city employees. Bach says it’s too early in the process to determine what plan will be best for the city.
“We’ll be talking about this among other recommendations we’re getting from other sources in the community as we head into August,” said Bach. “But we’re not going to be able to afford guaranteed pensions over the next 50 years.”
This will be the first budget adopted by the current City Council and its six new members under the change to a strong-mayor form of government. The 2012 budget year begins in January.
The executive director of the organization representing city police officers said she’s worried that the city police force will fall farther behind other Colorado departments that pay better and will attract officers from the city.
“Very frustrated,” said Robin Rogers of the Police Protective Association. “It’s having a significant impact on morale. We’re short about 60 officers. It’s hard for them to take vacations, and we’ve had a lot of retirements. We don’t expect a raise, but we want to be treated fairly.”
Public safety employees do not have a collective bargaining agreement with the city, so they are limited in how they can influence the process.
