By Roger Jimenez, Interning Correspondent for The Apopka Voice
Incorrect calculations found during an audit affect the pensions of over 100 retired police and firefighters. The results of the audit were shared in a presentation during the September 3 council meeting.
According to David Pappalardo, VP of Empower’s Benefit Consulting Services, the pension adjustments were made to align the benefit calculations with the city ordinances, state law, and IRS code. Specifically, there were issues with how earnings were being calculated.
Related: How affordable housing distracts people from housing affordability.
Previously, Empower used annual calendar year earnings instead of the required 312 consecutive monthly earnings, which led to incorrect pension calculations for some retirees. The audit found that some non-pensionable components were incorrectly included in earnings, leading to the recalculations. As a result, 106 retirees were impacted, with 62 receiving benefit increases and 44 experiencing benefit decreases.
But APD Captain Steve Brick, who has been Chairman of the Police pension for over twenty years, says that he pointed out these discrepancies a long time ago.
“In 2007, all three pension plans voted on a methodology to calculate pension benefits… I pointed out at the time that the methodology that they were using was not consistent with the city ordinance. The earliest emails and phone calls that we have are from 2019. That's six years ago.”
Brick said that lowering a retiree's pension could be a difficult transition.
“I don't know what I would do if my pension went down even 50 bucks a month, let alone over $200 a month.”
But Fire Lieutenant and Chairman of the Fire Department Board Mark Fry tried to reassure the council that it should trust the process.
“I've served on the board for 22 years… I just want to ensure everybody involved that this is a very isolated incident with a certain number of people. This, in no way, is a reflection on the way that the plans have been run or the funding of the plans… Don't let this one isolated case be a negative reflection upon what's going on with all the city workers," Fry explained. “Everything that's happening now is part of the process that we have to go through to get to the final answer, which I have confidence that we'll be able to do.”
Pappalardo stated that their goal was to share what caused the changes and that they are unable to answer any questions or concerns at this time.
Commissioner Nesta expressed the importance of doing right by the retired employees.
“I guess we're at that point where we don't know how to navigate forward… but my request is, let's make sure we're just taking care of the employees. They're on fixed incomes. They retired with the expectation that they would get a certain amount per month. I just want to make sure we're taking care of them.”
The pension boards await their next meeting with Empower to determine the next steps. For now, hundreds of retired professionals have no choice but to deal with the changes.
