Title
Resolution authorizing the City Clerk, the Director of Finance and the City Solicitor to enter into agreement or agreements and/or contract or contracts for the purposes of commissioning an independent panel of actuaries and accountants to establish an independent valuation of the liability of the Combined Municipal Pension Trust Fund (CMPTF), its funded ratio and an independent present value calculation of the revenues irrevocably dedicated to it by City Council. Cost not to exceed $100,000.
Body
Whereas, on September 18, 2009, the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted Act 44 of 2009, which required that Pittsburgh bring the funded ratio of the Combined Municipal Pension Trust Fund above 50% by December 31, 2010, or face mandatory state takeover of said Fund by the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System (PMRS); and,
Whereas, instead of contributing a large lump sum into the Fund, immediately, as recommended by PMRS Secretary James Allen, Council chose instead to irrevocably dedicate parking tax revenue for the next 31 years; and,
Whereas, Council, on January 11, 2011, adopted Resolution Number 35 of 2011, directing the City Controller to establish a present value calculation of the revenues irrevocably dedicated to the CMPTF; and,
Whereas, Council, in one of the recital clauses in Resolution Number 35 of 2011, stated the following: "
and the Controller is a member of the Comprehensive Municipal Pension Trust Fund board"; and,
Whereas, the City Controller is also one of the architects of the plan Council adopted to comply with Act 44 of 2009 and it was named by Council and the Controller himself as the "Council-Controller" Plan; and,
Whereas, the Controller's involvement in crafting this Plan gives him a vested political interest in its outcome and also being a Trustee of the CMPTF further undermines his position in this matter; and,
Whereas, there is far too much at stake here to leave the City in a position of being accused of perpetrating Enron accounting relative to the City's Pension funds; and,
Whereas, the City's poorest communities have suffered and continue to suffer because of decades of systematic disinvestment and neglect; and,
Whereas, poor and low-to-moderate-income communities will be most severely impacted by our failure to fund our Pensions because of skyrocketing pension contributions the City cannot afford to make but will be required to; and,
Whereas, the City has a moral obligation to keep the promises made to our current and former employees, that after a life of service given to our residents, that we will make the payments we promised them; and,
Whereas, the City, its' overseers and the Commonwealth have an obligation to ensure integrity in this process and restore public trust.
Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Pittsburgh as follows:
Section 1. The City Clerk, Director of Finance and the City Solicitor are hereby authorized and directed to enter into agreement or agreements and/or contract or contracts for the purposes of commissioning an independent panel of actuaries and accountants to establish an independent valuation of the liability of the Combined Municipal Pension Trust Fund (CMPTF), its funded ratio and an independent present value calculation of the revenues irrevocably dedicated to it by City Council. Cost not to exceed $100,000.