Jamie Munks
The State Journal-Register
The Springfield City Council on Tuesday revisited a plan to dedicate $1 million to paying down police and fire pension debt — something Ward 4 Ald. Frank Lesko urged his fellow aldermen to reconsider in light of the city-owned utility’s fiscal plight. Aldermen already voted 8-2 in August to put this $1 million toward the city’s mounting public safety pension debt, but the language in that ordinance indicated it was a transfer, when a supplemental appropriation is what’s required, city officials said.
The cleanup ordinance the city council will vote on next week gave Lesko, who opposed the original ordinance, a chance to reintroduce the debate at Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, forcing aldermen to weigh two of the city’s current major financial burdens — pension debt and a City Water, Light and Power deficit.
The original ordinance split the $1 million between the police and fire pension funds, and it was a compromise from the initial ordinance Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin proposed, which would have put more than $2 million toward paying down the city’s pension debt. The city’s unfunded liabilities currently top $230 million. Meanwhile, CWLP is facing its second technical default in four years if it can’t climb out of an $8 million hole by the end of the fiscal year in February to meet its required debt coverage ratio.
Lesko suggested the council repeal the initial ordinance and instead put the money toward the CWLP deficit. In the August vote, Lesko was joined by Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson in opposing the money going toward paying down pension debt right now.
McMenamin, who is often vocal about the city’s pension issues, countered Lesko’s plea to reconsider and said the council made the right decision the first time. “If we don’t face it now, we’re just fooling ourselves,” McMenamin said of the pension debt.
While changing direction and putting the money toward CWLP instead wouldn’t remedy that problem entirely, it could begin to make a dent in the $8 million deficit the utility is facing as officials work through possible fixes to that problem.
The ordinance is on the debate agenda for next week’s city council meeting.
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 