City Manager Dan Keen has responded to inquiries about pensions.  The Council negotiated new contracts with all employee bargaining units this summer.  Employee contributions toward pensions have increased and a new, less generous tier of benefits is being established for new hires.

Here's his email to all City Council candidates and the City Council:

The City has two retirement programs, one for sworn personnel (referred to as Safety), and one for all other staff (referred to as Miscellanous).  Both programs are a part of the Public Employee Retirement System, commonly referred to as PERS.

The basic formula for retirement benefits in Concord is as follows:  For Safety employees, an employee retiring after reaching age 50 and having at least 5 years of service will receive a pension which is based upon their years of service times 3%.    So, for example, a 25-year public safety employee who is age 50 at retirement would receive a pension based upon 75% of their highest 12-month salary.  This formula is commonly referred to as "3% at 50".

For Miscellaneous employees, an employee must be at least 55 years of age at retirement, and have at least 5 years of service to receive a pension which is based upon their years of service times 2.5%.  So, for example, a 25-year miscellanous employee who is age 55 at retirement would receive a pension based upon 62.5% of their highest 12-month salary.  This formula is commonly referred to as "2.5% at 55".

On tonight's Council agenda, the City Council will consider a change to the program for Miscellaneous employees.  If approved, this change would apply to all newly hired Miscellanous employees, and would change the formula to "2% at 55".  Thus, a 25-year Miscellaneous employee age 55 at retirement would receive a pension based on 50% of their highest 12-month salary.  The formulas in place for Safety and Miscellaneous employees are contractual obligations of the City, and for all practical purposes, can not be changed by action of the City Council with respect to existing employees hired while those formulas were in place.  However, through the labor negotiation process, the formulas for new employees can be changed, and that is why this item is on the agenda tonight.

The City pays for the costs of these retirement programs throughout the year.  The pension costs are divided into an "employee share", and an "employer share".  

For the Safety program, the employee share is 9%, and for the Miscellaneous program, the employee share is 8%.  However, until recently, all of the employee share for both programs was "picked up" by the City, a result of negotiated contracts during better times.  With the approval of new labor contracts last July, employees will be paying a greater share of the "employee share" — for Safety employees, 2.5% beginning July 1, 2010, and 5% on January 1, 2011; for Miscellaneous employees, 2% on July 1, 2010, and 5% on July 1, 2011.  The remaining share of the "employee share" will continue to be borne by the City (as of July 1, 2011, 4% for Safety employees, and 3% for Miscellaneous employees).

The employer share for both the Safety program and the Miscellaneous program is determined annually by PERS, based upon an actuarial study that is prepared by PERS.  This study examines a variety of factors to come up with an appropriate employer rate to fully fund the obligations of the City's retirement programs, including changes to the age and composition of our workforce, salary changes, the performance of PERS' investment portfolio, and broad assumptions about employee lifespan following retirement.  

In the current fiscal year, the employer rates are 25.855% for Safety, and 16.278% for Miscellaneous employees.   When the City's share of the "employee share" is included, the effective rates are 32.36% (as of July 1, 2010) and 29.86% (as of January 1, 2011) for Safety employees, and 22.28% (as of July 1, 2010) and 19.28% (as of July 1, 2011) for Miscellaneous employees.  The total cost to the City for pension benefits in Fiscal Year 2010-11 is $8.3 million, of which $7.3 million is General Fund.  This represents 10.2% of our expected revenue for this budget year.

In future years, we expect the employer rates to increase markedly, due to the massive investment losses which PERS incurred in 2008 and 2009, as well as changes to assumptions about retiree longevity (i.e., retirees are expected to live longer).  The current 10-year budget plan includes assumptions about future PERS rates which account for these expected increases.

There is a tremendous amount of additional information that could be provided about PERS, and I have only attempted to provide the basics with respect to Concord's programs.  Additional information can be found at http://www.calpers.ca.gov/. 

Dan Keen
City Manager

The Contra Costa Times wrote an editorial on Thursday, January 15 about the City Council's choice of a Preferred Alternative for the CNWS Base Reuse calling it "Balanced Development".

The editorial hasn't been posted on their website – so I'm providing a link to a pdf version here.

As the editorial – and each of my colleagues have pointed out – this is not a final decision, but the next step in the planning process.  Now the Navy can move forward with their own environmental studies and we can finish our environmental review (EIR).  New information or issues may come to light that require us to modify the final plan before placing it in our General Plan and adopting implementing policies – so public participation and input is still vital as we move forward.

I'd like to thank the Community Advisory Committee members who spent countless hours reviewing public input and professional advice to arrive at their recommendation.  The Council took both the majority and minority reports seriously.  I also appreciated the patience and civility everyone who testified showed in presenting their ideas and concerns.  As I said Monday evening – in recent history most large-scale development efforts have been developer/property owner driven.  I am proud we were able to create a citizen driven planning process with a tremendous degree of transparency.  You should be too.  Stay tuned.

On Monday evening, January 5, 2009, the City Council will consider a staff report about noise control measures requested by Councilmember Helen Allen.  The report explains what is currently done to address noise issues in the City and provides a summary matrix of how 20 other jurisdictions in the East Bay handle noise problems.  The report also points out that the remedy for most noise issues is already covered by State Law or the current Municipal Code.  For instance, Concord treats repeated sound amplification as disturbing the peace – if two or more neighbors complain.

Last Monday night the City Council, sitting as the Local Reuse Authority (LRA), held our first hearing on the way to choosing a preferred land use plan for the former Concord Naval Weapons Station.

You can learn about the current proposals and review the Community Advisory Committee’s process by checking out the material available on the Concord Community Reuse Project website.

You can also watch – provided you have about 5 hours – the staff presentation and public testimony from November 17th by visiting the City’s website and viewing the webcast of that meeting.

I appreciated the fact that most of the 50+ speakers at the meeting were positive, offered constructive criticism and/or expressed genuine concerns about the plan’s future impacts.  Many were also quite specific – which is also helpful.

A regional stakeholders group provided suggestions on how to improve the Cluster Villages alternative to better integrate educational facilities and potential office parks for green or new technologies.

The Neighborhood Alliance made specific requests like the size of any open space buffer and the permanence of open space designations to protect existing homes that border the Base.

All in all the hearing went well.

One thing, among many, I’m still struggling with though is the concept of “world class”.  Creating a “world class” project has been one of the City’s goals and guiding principles from the beginning.  The approximately 20 members of the Community Advisory Committee worked diligently to craft their recommendations with the idea that they meet the goals and guiding principles, including the “world class” criteria.  What do you think? Is the project “world class”?  If not, what would make it “world class”?

The next public meeting on the Reuse Plan is set for 6:30 pm on December 1st at the Concord Senior Center – 2727 Parkside Circle.

Concord residents and businesses received the City’s Annual Report for fiscal year 2007-2008 in the mail last weekend.

You can download it in Adobe PDF (4+mb file) here.

Concord has an excellent staff.  They work very hard to make sure city programs and services are of the highest quality and delivered in a cost effective manner.

The budget – revenue sources and major expenditure categories – is detailed on pages 8 and 9.  Our two primary sources of revenue are Sales Tax and Property Tax.  Concord receives only 3/4 of a penny of the 8 1/4 cents sales tax paid on purchases made in Concord and receives only $9 out of every $100 paid in property tax.  The rest goes to the State or County for services and programs they provide, including public education.

All indications are the State Budget standoff will be partially resolved by taking a percentage of every Redevelopment Agency’s funding.  Current figures indicate our Agency could lose approximately $800,000 per year – perhaps permanently.  That’s money Concord will not have to fund capital improvement projects designed to raise our property values, revitalize commercial areas and improve the local economy.

Let’s hope our leaders in Sacramento find a better budget solution than stealing funds from local governments.  Especially when the short term fix undermines long term economic growth and the taxes that growth will generate.