San Jose City Council Members Seek To End Their Own Pensions
SAN JOSE (CBS/AP) –City leaders in San Jose are taking steps to eliminate their own state-run pension plan.
The city council voted unanimously on Tuesday to notify the California Public Employees' Retirement System that the city intends to end the pension plan for council members. Once CalPERS has been notified, it will begin to tally the cost of ending the pension plan, including paying off any shortfalls in the fund.
"We're asking people to do difficult things," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. "And we shouldn't ask them to do something that we're not willing to do. So this is leadership by example, which is the best way to do it. It's difficult to ask council members to give up some benefits, but we will in order to help contribute towards solving this huge problem of skyrocketing retirement costs."
KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:
Council members still won't see their pensions end immediately, because that move requires a two-thirds vote to become final.
Councilman Pete Constant said the council members' pension plan is underfunded by more than $400,000 dollars.
City employees are covered under a separate municipal plan.
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