The City Council, in its Tuesday (June 12) meeting, adopted a resolution approving the law firm of Kelly Hart & Hallman, L.L.P. as outside legal counsel to assist and represent the City in some issues.
The first is pension-related legal. The decision goes hand-in-hand with the Council considering amendments to the retirement ordinance.
City Manager David Cooke is in the process of reviewing and preparing recommendations to the Council to improve the health of the City of Fort Worth Employees’ Retirement Fund (the Fund). The recommendations may include pension modifications for retirees, vested terminated members, along with future and current employees.
Kelly Hart & Hallman successfully represented the city in defending the modifications made to the pension system in 2012 and 2014.
Legal fees are not expected to exceed $150,000.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Council passed a resolution to notify the City of Fort Worth Employees Retirement Fund Board of the Council’s intent to consider and vote on amendments to the retirement ordinance. Formal recommendations will be presented on Aug. 7, Cooke said.
“Tonight, Mayor and Council passed a resolution that is simply part of the process to make necessary changes to the pension system in order for it to be sustainable in the long-term. This is one piece of the process,” Cooke said.
Amendments being considered include:
*Reducing or eliminating future accruals of cost of living adjustments (ad hoc and 2 percent) for all participating retirees, participating members, vested terminated members and for all beneficiaries.
*Eliminating future accumulated sick leave and major medical leave from the
calculation of credited service for leave accumulated.
*Increasing minimum retirement age upon which both current and future members
become eligible to draw a pension.
*Extending the Rule of 80, upon which both current and future members become eligible to draw a pension. This rule states that once an employee’s age and years of service total 80, the employee is eligible to retire.
There were some guest speakers Tuesday who spoke in opposition to any amending of the ordinance, including Marsha Anderson, who is on the Retirement Fund Board.
“I’m going to retire when city employees no longer sleep with one eye open for fear of losing more of their retirement benefits,” Anderson said. “I do want to retire, but I’ll see you in August.”
Jim Tate said, Well, here we are again, five years after the city turned down the firefighters’ offer to increase their pension by five percent. That’s a lot of money that could have gone into the fund over the past five years.”
Isaiah Smith told the Council, “I would urge you guys to ask retired employees how they feel about this issue.”
The firm has also been approved by City Council to assist and represent the City in matters related to a Notice of Intent to file Citizen Suit by Penna Group, LLC, and any other related legal matters regarding alleged Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Violations. This is in connection with property located in the vicinity of the Brennan Avenue Service Center.
Penna Group is citing alleged environmental contamination on this property owned by the City. The City must respond within 60 days of receiving the actual notice of intent to file suit.
Legal fees are not expected to exceed $85,000.
Assistant City Attorney Christa Reynolds said they are dealing with ground water contaminations, not surface water, and that a process is in place to keep the two types of water apart.
“They haven’t reached violation type levels,” she said. “We don’t have any lab tests that show any violations.”