Dallas Leaders Unite to Spar With Legislature Over Police Pension Fix

Dallas officials were united Monday. Not about what to do about the city's woebegone police and fire pension system. There's still plenty of arguing to do about what to do with the $3.6 billion unfunded liability that could threaten the fund's liquidity in less than a decade.

No, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, Dallas City Council members Lee Kleinman and Scott Griggs and former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert joined together Monday to criticize the amended version of a statehouse bill to fix the pension problem.

The city officials lambasted Texas State Representative Dan Flynn's House Bill 3158 for taking too much control of the pension fund away from the city and unfairly burdening Dallas residents. “The citizens, the taxpayers, had nothing to do with the failure of this fund,” Rawlings said during testimony in front of the Texas House Pension Committee.

As amended by the committee, Flynn's bill would take control of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System's board out of the hands of the city and hand it to retired police and firefighters. As written by Flynn, the bill would've given city employees a clear majority of spots on the board. The committee version of the bill gives the city five seats, police and firefighters five seats and allocates one seat on the board to be chosen by consent of both groups.

Read more: http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-city-officials-fight-state-legislature-of-proposed-fire-and-police-pension-fix-9337008