Council keeps pension control

NEWPORT BEACH — The City Council will keep its control over employee pension boosts rather than giving voters a chance to weigh in.

Councilman Keith Curry withdrew a proposal Tuesday for a ballot measure that would have let voters decide city employee pension hikes if they increase the city’s costs. He didn’t think there was support on the council, he said, and he doesn’t plan to pursue a valid measure without it.

“I’m disappointed in having to do that because I think we’ve missed an opportunity to show leadership,” Curry said.

City officials have said Newport does face unfunded pension costs — in 2005 the cost was reportedly $61 million — but Newport Beach is otherwise financially healthy, with record-high reserves and plans to spend millions on a new city hall, fire stations and other facilities.

Backed by the fiscally conservative Lincoln Club, Curry proposed the ballot measure, he said, as a protection against future uncertainties. He cited San Francisco, where voters have had control over pension hikes for years and the city pension system is fully funded, and San Diego, which adopted a similar measure in 2006 after a pension meltdown that led to layoffs.

“The time to take proactive action is now, not when we’re facing a crisis,” Curry told the council. “I don’t believe any city council has knowingly approved a contract thinking that it would cause a pension crisis.”

But not everyone agreed that deciding on pension issues is a responsibility voters should bear. Councilwoman Nancy Gardner said residents have told her they elect the council to make such complex decisions.

Several leaders of the city’s employee unions worried about losing their collective bargaining rights and urged the council to keep what they saw as partisan politics out of city government.

“You place a huge burden on the average voter to make them learn all the facts,” Newport Beach Police Management Assn. President John Desmond said. “Other than trying to make a political statement, what is the purpose of this proposal?”

One of the more costly, and now controversial, benefits is the so-called 3% at 50, which allows employees to retire at age 50 and collect 3% of their final salary times the number of years they worked for the city. Newport’s police, fire and lifeguards all recently negotiated this benefit.

As recently as March, Curry supported giving 3% at 50 to lifeguards. Last week he explained that vote was because it was affordable — the benefit covered 17 people and cost $42,000 — and it put lifeguards on par with Newport public safety workers.

The council unanimously approved a conceptual design for the Oasis Senior Center, which will be rebuilt over the next several years. However, council members didn’t commit to putting a city-run library branch in the center, or to what they will do with the nearby Corona del Mar branch library.

ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].