SALEM - City Council will again consider changing how much of the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System is paid by the city and the employees.
Council's committee of the whole met Wednesday night to iron out some of the details of the ordinance they plan to vote on at an upcoming council meeting.
One major portion of the ordinance would cause council members participating in OPERS to pay 10 percent of their council salary toward their own retirement. Currently, the city pays both the city's portion and the 10 percent employee portion.
Speaking in favor of that portion of the ordinance, Councilwoman Rita Joseph O'Leary said it was a chance for council to show the town that council is starting to make some of the moves to cut back on city expenses toward pensions.
City Auditor James Armeni asked again at the meeting to be added to the list of city elected officials willing to pay his 10 percent. Other elected officials will be given the opportunity to choose to do so, but only until the ordinance is finalized and passed on its third reading.
After that, all elected officials will be required to pay their employee share to OPERS if they participate in the retirement program, but not until the next change of term or if someone resigned and a new person is appointed to the position. Councilman Brian Whitehill said he considered the future change for all the other elected officials a way to give them warning that the change would be coming.
Some concerns were raised about the change. Councilman Dennis Groves pointed out changing it for salaried officials amounts to a large amount. For example, he said the mayor makes $49,000 and the change would effectively reduce his salary to about $45,000.
"Comments have been made about the quality of people," Groves said. "You generally don't get the best quality of people if you pay minimum wage."
He also pointed out the committee's chairman, David Nestic, has been in favor of a charter form of government, where a city manager and finance director may make $70,000, $80,000 or even $90,000. Nestic admitted for those positions the charter government may be more expensive to draw the type of people the city council would want to run things. However, he also said there is a different structure with a charter.
Nestic said he feels the employees will have to pay their own share eventually and called it a chance to give "fair warning" to the elected officials, noting they will know before the next election what their benefit package will be. However, he also pointed out perhaps by then the city will already have a charter government.
Councilman John Berlin said he feels the wages paid to all city officials may need reviewed, but getting rid of the city paying the entire portion of the elected officials' share of pension pickup is a way to change something he feels many in the city perceive as "outrageous."
All members of council except Groves voted to include the portion of the ordinance affecting elected officials.
Council decided for now to reject a past offer by the city's non-bargaining employees to pay 2 percent of the current 8.5 percent toward their OPERS. Some council members said they were certain that the offer made months ago was no longer on the table, because it was made with the understanding that other things would not happen.
Nestic pointed out council could still force the non-bargaining employees to pay more if they chose to, but Councilman Bret Apple questioned how much the 2 percent from just those employees was going to save the city and if it was the right thing to do for that type of money. Nestic said he believed it could save the city between $8,000 and $10,000. Armeni said he would have to work the figures to give council an accurate amount.
Whitehill said he has concerns about letting the non-bargaining and union employees wait until during negotiations next year to change their OPERS. He said after the November election the city council may have to make big decisions depending on the outcome of the income tax issue on the ballot.
"November is going to be a very pivotal election," Whitehill said. "The way the revenue has tracked , I guess I would rather their be an outcry by the non-bargaining members If new money is not going to come in, I think we're going to have a lot bigger issues than just the 2 percent."
Once the new ordinance is sent to Law Director Brooke Zellers, Nestic said he expects council to have one reading, send it to OPERS for approval and then have the final two readings to pass it.
