Rather than slash jobs and possibly hike property taxes, City of Hollywood residents have voted to reduce pension plans for police, firefighters, and city employees.
The city says it has been spending 25 percent of its budget on pensions, two and a half times the recommended level. The drastic changes are meant to save Hollywood approximately $8.5 million dollars.
"With the $23 million, $24 million that we wre paying in pensions annually, we could no longer afford [it]…for our residents and our whole community," said interim city manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark.
The move will increase the retirement age for employees, eliminate automatic cost of living adjustments, and reduce several other financial incentives for employees.
Those issues are usually are reserved for closed door negotiations, but after the city declared a financial urgency, the fight soon went public.
"Over a series of good intentions," said Swanson-Rivenbark, "it continued to load upward."
Hollywood firefighters had the highest retirement pensions of all city workers. The last ten to retire averaged $77,000 per year, the city said.
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But unhappy unions fought the proposal, arguing they had already agreed to cuts.
"The negotiations were terms of surrender. It’s the worst plan in the state," said Jeff Marano, senior vice president of the Broward Police Benevolent Association. "All the benefits that we have worked for over the past 30 years they are trying to wipe them out at one time. We didn’t have an outlandish plan."
Without the $8.5 million in savings, city officials said they would be forced to lay off workers and hike the property tax rate.
Voter turnout was low, with only about 14 percent of eligible Hollywood residents heading to the polls.
Nearly 58 percent voted in favor of reform for general employee plans and nearly 55 percent for both fire and police departments' plans.
