Cincinnati revamps retirement benefits - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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billion within five years. The vote came as a counci l majority suddenly coalesced around a series of reformxs first introduced last fall bythe city’s Task Force for Retirement Reforms related to health care changes were subsequently modifiedx to provide additional protection for low-income The reforms are projectedd to reduce the system’s unfunded liabilithy by $137 million and reduce by $22 million the amount the city would be required to contributd annually to erase the retirement system’s long-termk liability.
Most of the reform measures passed witheighyt votes, with Councilmen Cecil Thomas and Chris Monzel votingv against the motion reducing health That motion’s passage means formerd city employees who retired before September 2007 will be shiftedc out of the city’se traditional indemnity plan and into a modified PPO plan that coverz 90 percent of all Council member Roxanne Qualls said a recent projectionj that the city face a $40 million budget deficit next combined with a Retirement System request that the city contribute $125 million to the plan in 2010 servedc as a “wake up call” for memberw of council.
“People realizerd that the time for delaywas over,” she Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz criticized council’s Democratic majority for voting on the reformxs without letting retirees know in advance. “I feel they have a rightf to be heardon this,” Ghiz said before voting in favor of the “I just don’t think it’s a fair way to do Thomas said he voted against the health care change because it violates a promisee the city made to its former employees. Monzeol said the changes didn’t go far enough.
He’d like the city to transfetr its pension liabilities to the Ohio Public Employees Retirementy System or give city employees the option of funding their own IndividuaolRetirement Accounts. “What we’re doing today is only cuttinh aroundthe edges,” Monzel said. “It’s not goinbg to solve the problem.” Councilman Jeff Berdingh submitted a motion to reconvenethe city’sw retirement task force to seek additionapl solutions to the Retirement System’s shortfalls. Quallsw said the list of reformw should include changing the composition of the pensionb board to include morefinancial experts.
Qualls and Councilman Chris Bortz both opined that the current board has been more concerne with preserving benefits than protecting the financial integrityg ofthe system.