| Letter - Requests for
FY2004 August 8, 2002
Marcy Foster, Chief, Employee Services
2100 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 511
Arlington, Va. 22201
Dear Marcy,
Following are the issues the Arlington Professional Firefighters
and Paramedics Association and the Arlington Coalition of
Police would like to have considered for implementation during
the FY04 budget process. As you will see, some of these issues
are related to previously approved changes. Those may not
necessarily need to be included in the budget process, but
we would like to have them addressed.
The first two issues have to do with the retirement benefits
for public safety employees and are the two highest priorities
among the listed items. We recommend that the accrual rate
for the pre-social security bridge be raised from the current
2% per service year to 2.3% per year. It is important to point
out this is a change from our previous position of seeking
a straight 2% accrual rate. We have increased our recommendation
due to the fact that other jurisdictions continue to increase
their benefits. More specifically, last year Fairfax County
Fire Department employees' pre-social security accrual rate
was increased from 2.5% to 2.8%. This brought their accrual
rate up to the level that Fairfax County Police receive. Thus,
our .3% increase allows us to keep pace.
The second of our highest priority issues is to increase the
accrual rate used for calculating the base benefit for public
safety employees from the current tiered system (1.5% first
ten years, 1.7% second ten years and 2% for last ten years)
to 2% per service year. This has been our position since we
first initiated retirement issues many years ago. This would
not place us at or even near the top in the comparison charts,
but would at least bring us more in to the middle of the region.
The next issue we would like considered is the addition of
a 50% spousal benefit for public safety employees. This benefit
would be similar to the existing 50% spousal benefit provided
to Chapter 21 public safety employees. The demand of performing
public safety jobs does result in most of us passing away
at an earlier age than the general public. Because we are
likely to pass away before our spouses, we are concerned for
their financial disposition. Securing some level of continued
annuity is critical to our families. Another important aspect
of this issue is should our families be left without an annuity,
their eligibility for health care will also cease. Obviously,
this presents an extraordinary concern. While we would like
a spousal benefit similar to the Chapter 21 benefit, we would
like the following aspects included in the new benefit which
are different than the existing plan;
The employees would not bear the entire cost of the benefit
The employee would be able to assign a beneficiary subsequent
to their retirement in the instance that they are not married
at the time of retirement
The employee would be able to assign a beneficiary subsequent
to their retirement in the instance that they outlive their
spouse and remarry
All public safety retirees would receive the benefit (the
Chapter 21 benefit excludes service connected disability and
early retirements)
Chapter 21 public safety employees have been paying an additional
1.62% of their pay for the spousal benefit since the late
70's. We would like the spousal benefit described above to
be affective for all current and retired public safety employees.
We feel the next issue was intended as part of the establishment
of 25 years of service as a parameter under which a public
safety employee could receive an unreduced annuity. (The other
parameter is age 52 and 5 years of service.) Employees are
eligible for an unreduced retirement when they reach either
of these parameters. It seems reasonable that employees either
retiring early or opting for a deferred annuity would also
do so based on when they would have otherwise been entitled
to an unreduced benefit according to either of the two parameters.
In other words, if an employee retires early, their penalty
should be assessed according to when they would have been
eligible for an unreduced retirement. Likewise, an employee
opting for a deferred retirement should be able to start drawing
their retirement with no penalty at the exact same time that
they would have been able to draw an unreduced annuity had
they continued working. My understanding is that both of these
situations are applied to the age 52 requirement regardless
of whether that was the parameter that would have applied
to the individual employee had they continued working.
The following issue should apply to any county employee that
retires due to a service connected disability. If such an
employee applies for and receives Social Security Disability,
that retired employee's Arlington County pension should not
be offset in any way as a result of receiving the Social Security
Disability benefit. These are the most severely injured employees
and need every possible income source to support their families.
When the pre-social security concept was established for public
safety employees three years ago, the County Board approved
the measure with the exact wording that the Virginia Retirement
System used for the discontinuance of their public safety
employee pre-social security benefit. It states the benefit
lasts until the employee reaches “social security age”.
This means age 67 in most instances. The Arlington policy
was changed after having been approved by the County Board
and the resultant definition read that the benefit ceases
when an employee starts drawing social security. As previously
mentioned, most of us will die early and therefore opt for
early social security. This results in a penalty. Arlington
shouldn’t compound that penalty. In fact, the mechanism
for the county to track “when an employee starts drawing
social security” requires staff time and additional
correspondence with every retiree that reaches the age of
62. The retirement board must request tax information from
each of these retirees for evaluation. Obviously, there are
costs associated with the small savings this policy achieves.
We recommend the pre-social security benefit be provided until
the employee reaches social security age. This will reduce
the penalty on the employee and save staff time and expense.
The last issue we would like to raise is that of pay for public
safety employees. We are of the impression that a separation
of employee groups into different pay scales will ultimately
be necessary for all employees to remain competitive with
similar employees in the region. Such a concept is practiced
in every other jurisdiction in the region. Due to the pending
issues associated with the approval of improving pay for Fire
Department personnel during last year’s budget hearings,
it is difficult to project needs for next year. Therefore,
attached is a self explanatory proposal for the Fire Department
that was previously forwarded to you. It is important to reiterate
that we believe there is a need for separate pay scales.
Sincerely,
Ken Dennis, President
ACOP, Local 48
Mike Staples, President
APFPA, Local 2800
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