One of the major projects of the Alvin Brown administration was comprehensive pension reform, a path that took the relationship between the Jacksonville Mayor’s Office and City Council through many twists and turns.
The findings of the Police and Fire Pension Fund audit were described by Councilman Bill Gulliford as “reprehensible … with a vast and staggering sum of money … recklessly squandered, and now lost forever to this community … because of a huge unfunded, bloated, and excessively expensive pension fund that no one was properly watching.”
That said, there may be some positive momentum already built, according to former Brown Chief of Staff Chris Hand, who told FloridaPolitics.com Thursday that “the community is not starting from scratch in efforts to improve the PFPF situation. New governance reforms that took effect just four months ago will help to address some of the concerns about transparency and accountability at the Police and Fire Pension Fund.”
Hand went into detail.
“The continued focus on improving transparency and accountability at the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund (PFPF) recalls one hopeful development from the recent past: governance changes in the pension reform agreement that took effect in late June 2015,” Hand said.
“Though the benefit changes and funding requirements of the city of Jacksonville’s pension reform agreement with the PFPF received more public attention, the agreement also contains important governance reforms to enhance transparency and accountability at the PFPF. These reforms are in many ways the heart of the agreement, as they provide some of the long-term changes needed to help prevent Jacksonville’s recent pension history from repeating itself.”
Those changes include “shifting benefit negotiations to collective bargaining between the city and unions,” which “focuses the PFPF on its primary role in managing pension assets.”
As well, “new ethics standards and disclosure requirements now apply to the PFPF and the investment managers it hires. Consistent actuarial accounting methods will promote accuracy and predictability in plan funding. Qualified citizens will provide input on PFPF investment decisions through the new Financial and Investment Advisory Committee,” Hand said.
Hand also noted that “[p]ublic records disputes and most other everyday legal matters will now be handled by the city’s Office of General Counsel as is the case with most other independent authorities, rather than by outside counsel. The agreement specifies strict hiring criteria for future executive directors, and provides clear rules on the retirement benefits those employees will earn.”
“The credit for these governance reforms goes to the 17 members of the Jacksonville Retirement Reform Task Force – which included current Council President Greg Anderson – and their capable advisers from the Pew Charitable Trusts and MAEVA,” Hand said.
“The task force members and advisers thoughtfully crafted most of these provisions. We made the task force’s governance recommendations a priority in our negotiations with the PFPF and reached agreement on most of them,” Hand said. “Through Councilman Bill Gulliford‘s legislation, City Council overwhelmingly adopted the governance changes as part of the overall agreement.”
“Recent events reinforce Council President Anderson’s wise appointment of Bill Scheu to the PFPF Board of Trustees. Because Mr. Scheu chaired the Retirement Reform Task Force,” Hand said, “he understands the critical importance of these governance reforms and the need to implement them fully and quickly.”
With the very real specter of investigations by the FBI, the SEC, and the Department of Justice looming over the fund, as well as internal inquiries fueled by subpoenas and the righteous wrath of City Council, and tangible pressure for intercession from Tallahassee, it will be interesting to see how these governance reforms play into the larger narrative.
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A.G. Gancarski
