Is Portland paying more for retired cops than current ones?
A frustrated reader asked us a while back whether the City of Portland was paying more to retired police officers and firefighters than it was to those currently on the police and fire forces. We've finally gotten around to looking at that question, and the answer appears to be no -- not yet.
According to this document -- a disclosure the city made when it took out a huge short-term loan to pay police and fire pension benefits this past summer -- the city was expecting that its police and fire pension fund was going to spend $107.4 million in the year ending June 30, 2011. Of that amount, about $4 million is being put aside for the pensions of recently hired police and firefighters, who are now covered by the state pension system; that leaves $103.4 million being spent currently on benefits to retired and disabled officers under the city's reckless pay-as-you-go system.
Who is in that retiree group? According to the city's administrative rules, only permanent sworn officers are members of the pension fund:
(A) Those sworn permanent employees of the Bureau of Fire and Rescue having the job classifications of Fire Fighter, Fire Fighter Specialist, Fire Fighter Communications, Fire Lieutenant, Fire Training Officer, Staff Fire Lieutenant, Fire Captain, Fire Training Captain, Fire Battalion Chief, Deputy Fire Chief, Division Fire Chief, City Fire Chief, Fire Inspector I, Fire Inspector II, Fire Inspector I Specialist, Staff Fire Captain, Fire Lieutenant Communications, Harbor Pilot, Assistant Fire Marshal, Assistant Public Education Officer and EMS Coordinator;How much is the city spending in current salaries to officers in those categories, presently on the force, this year? Here are some figures that we pulled out of the current year's budget. When in doubt as to whether a position was covered by the pension plan, such as when the title didn't exactly match up to the one on the official list just quoted, we included it:(B) Those permanent sworn employees of the Bureau of Police having the job classifications of Police Officer, Police Sergeant, Police Detective, Criminalist, Police Lieutenant, Police Captain, Police Commander, Deputy Police Chief, Assistant Police Chief, and Police Chief.
| Fire | ||
| Title | Number | Budgeted salaries |
| EMS Program Manager | 1 | $ 92,724 | Fire Battalion Chief | 13 | 1,507,812 |
| Staff Fire Battalion Chief | 2 | 246,744 |
| Fire Captain | 32 | 3,217,344 |
| Staff Fire Captain | 4 | 416,136 |
| Fire Chief | 1 | 169,020 |
| Deputy Fire Chief | 5 | 662,230 |
| Fire Division Chief | 2 | 287,302 | Fire Fighter | 442 | 32,214,648 |
| Fire Fighter Specialist | 8 | 612,276 |
| Fire Inspector | 24 | 2,010,895 |
| Sr. Fire Inspector | 6 | 573,240 |
| Fire Inspector/Specialist | 10 | 909,342 |
| Fire Investigator | 7 | 648,451 |
| Fire Lieutenant | 104 | 9,297,363 |
| Staff Fire Lieutenant | 7 | 651,383 |
| Fire Marshal | 1 | 143,652 |
| Assistant Fire Marshal | 2 | 244,296 |
| Fire Training Officer | 4 | 355,159 |
| Harbor Pilot | 7 | 621,464 |
| Assistant Public Education Officer | 1 | 84,204 |
| Police | ||
| Title | Number | Budgeted salaries | Police Captain | 10 | $ 1,199,164 |
| Police Chief | 1 | 183,852 |
| Assistant Police Chief | 3 | 447,652 |
| Police Commander | 7 | 919,764 |
| Police Criminalist | 17 | 1,422,966 |
| Police Detective | 95 | 7,862,499 |
| Police Lieutenant | 24 | 2,494,016 |
| Police Officer | 700 | 49,226,244 |
If you add up all those salaries, you get a grand total of around $118.7 million -- and that's not including overtime, I don't think. Overtime probably tacks another $25 million to $30 million onto those base salary figures. And so no, Virginia, Portland's not spending more on retired police and firefighters than on current ones. The ratio's something like 3-to-2 current-to-retired. But the day when the retirees catch up and get ahead may not be too far off.
| Posted at 9:42 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (9)
But wait, the city took out a loan to pay pension benefits? And now Randy wants a loan for BDS to get new computers and Nick wants a loan to pay for park services?
This is like paying your bills with your credit card: one or two payments once in awhile won't hurt, but if you're constantly whipping out the plastic you are either in dire straits or are financially incompetent.
Posted by Eric | November 22, 2010 10:29 AM
I assume those are just salaries? Then you'd need to add another 35-40% for benes.
So the avg Fire Fighter gets $72,884 and avg Police Officer gets $70,323 per year?
Why do we have 104 Fire Lt ($89,398/yr)? That's one for every 4.25 fire fighters?
Posted by Steve | November 22, 2010 11:04 AM
"Why do we have 104 Fire Lt ($89,398/yr)? That's one for every 4.25 fire fighters?"
Because thanks to Randy and the Firefighters Union every Fire Truck needs it's own LT to run things, silly. And every three trucks need a Captain.
Whatsamatta U don't like firemen?
Posted by Anon Too | November 22, 2010 11:20 AM
Ya gotta love the seven harbor pilots.
Posted by Jack Bog | November 22, 2010 12:29 PM
At least there is no magic asterisk representing potential loss in stocks for a funded plan, on top of what we can sort of measure today, for the tier one and tier two safety workers who are or will eventually retire. The ability to measure an expense today and measure it for future periods, today, is quite a different question than whether a pay decision is wise or foolish.
If any tier three safety worker wants to take their pay, no matter how it is characterized, and invest it or spend it as they wish they can insist on opting out of the plan "offered" by the "independent" state PERS.
Posted by pdxnag | November 22, 2010 12:56 PM
You also gotta love the $$89,000 for each harbor pilot, not including their benefits.
I've got my boaters license and a 100 ton license-I'd love to get $125,000 a year without even the overtime. Sign me up, Randy.
Posted by lw | November 22, 2010 1:00 PM
Then you'd need to add another 35-40% for benes.
Maybe current medical, but not for retirement. As noted in the post, Portland doesn't put anything aside currently for officers' retirement.
Posted by Jack Bog | November 22, 2010 3:13 PM
"but not for retirement."
Foolish me, I thought taxpayers made the PFDR contribution like we do for PERS.
God, please let this thing reach tipping point when both Randy and Sam are in office. I wanna see who they're gonna blame.
Posted by Steve | November 22, 2010 9:07 PM
I suppose the big O doesn't dwell much on this because the info isn't in the form of an upbeat PR release from city hall.
Posted by David E Gilmore | November 23, 2010 9:22 AM