Second Police Officer Mike Slyvester is looking forward to mountain biking, snowboarding and basically staying as far away from work as possible when he retires. There is one problem, however, and that’s lack of pension money for city employees.

The San Diego City Council does not have enough money to funds its contribution to the San Diego Police Department’s pension program. Currently, the pension program for all city employees is $2 billion dollars short, said Jeff Jordan, vice president of the San Diego Police Officer Association.

One reason the pension program falls short is that in the 1980s the city promised its employees full health care benefits, totaling to about $250,000 per employee, said Jordan. According to Jordan, when those employees began to retire in 2009, the city did not have the money for the benefits because they never put the money aside to fund them.

This year, the city paid $235 million just to the San Diego Police Department’s pension fund. The amount is so high because the city is trying to make up for the broken promises it made such as the health care benefits, said Jordan.

“The pension program isn’t that expensive, maybe $50 million a year,” said Jordan. “Do you know what is expensive? Retroactive promises that you never funded, and now you gotta pay them.”

Jordan pointed out that Stockton, Calif., is another city that is making headlines with not having money to fund its city employees. Right now, the city of Stockton is in court trying to declare bankruptcy and break contracts to not pay city employee pensions.

Unlike Stockton, the city of San Diego is trying to avoid filing for bankruptcy by working with city employee groups like the Police Officers Association to cut pension costs, said Jordan.

According to the POA’s document “Steps to Real Pension Reform for the City of San Diego,” provided by Jordan, the association is trying cut pension costs by implementing a new hybrid pension reform that would decrease defined benefits and rely more on defined contribution. Currently, employees at the San Diego Police Department get 3 percent of their salary each year they work at the department.

For example, an employee making $100,000 and working at the department for 25 years would get $75,000 per year in retirement. The new hybrid pension would decease the 3 percent multiplier.

The defined contribution aspect of the pension reform would make it mandatory for employees to invest their own money into retirement with the department matching what the employee invests.

Additionally, the document shows the Police Officer Association asking the City Council members to take their own pension cuts by getting rid of the Elected Members Plan from the city’s budget. The plan allows the City Council to get a higher multiplier, at 3.5 percent, while having no minimum age of requirement with eight years of service to the city. (link)

It boils down to more than just money, there is a whole ethical argument underlying in the situation, said Jordan.

“I pay my part each and every day when I put on my badge and risk my life, so the city should keep its promise,” said Jordan. “But I understand the consequences of the city keeping its promise [bankruptcy].”

What may seem unethical to Sylvester is that after 27 years of service to the city, he may not be able to live out his retirement dream of getting out of his police uniform and enjoying the outdoors. It will all depend on compromises made by the city and city employee groups.