Grand Island pension snafu goes to a vote

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by Josh Egbert

Story Created: Dec 18, 2012 at 6:39 PM CDT

Story Updated: Dec 18, 2012 at 7:35 PM CDT

Hundreds of thousands of dollars could potentially be at stake Tuesday night if the Grand Island City Council votes to take back money from the pensions of retired police officers.

The snafu was discovered by one of the councilmen just last week, but tonight the council will vote on where to go from here.

News 5's Josh Egbert has more on the pension problem facing Grand Island.

The Grand Island city council will vote on four different issues Tuesday night, two of them involving money and retired police officers a big decision that could have a big impact.

"The first decision will be, should be preceded with a remedy for the most recent claim to our pre-84 retiree," said Grand Island Finance Director Jaye Monter.

That retiree was paid $459,000 in November. That pension was based on a joint annuity, not a single annuity.

"We'd have to basically send a formal letter out to the police retirement committee and to the retiree and basically ask that we recalculate that annuity quote based on a straight life annuity," Monter said.

The council will also vote whether to go back and remedy, or fix, the other three claims paid out in 2010.

State statue says the council can remedy those claims within a four year period.

They will also vote on how to calculate the remaining 7 officer's pensions who were hired before 1984 whether base it on a single annuity or a joint annuity and lastly they will vote on how to pay for it.

"What I'm asking council to do tonight is to allow a budget authorization to transfer the monies from the general fund over to the police reserve fund in order to make the next retirement payment to the next police retiree," said Monter.

The council will be voting on those issues Tuesday night. News 5 will keep you updated.

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