Jamie Munks
The State Journal-Register
The Springfield City Council on Tuesday for a second time voted to dedicate $1 million toward the city’s police and firefighter pension debt amid calls to put the payment off until at least the end of the fiscal year. Ward 4 Ald. Frank Lesko asked his fellow aldermen to reconsider the ordinance they first approved months ago, urging them to put it off until at least Feb. 28, when the fiscal year ends.
The reaffirmation passed by a 6-2 vote, with Lesko and Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson voting against it. The measure came up again, after the allocation had already been approved once, because some of the language in the original ordinance needed to be updated, city officials said.
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin initially proposed that the city put $2 million toward paying down the city’s unfunded pension liabilities, which was eventually cut in half as a compromise before it was passed.
Ward 1 Ald. Frank Edwards said Tuesday that he could have been swayed to hold off on the pension payment if the city was going to hold off on other expenditures, including another big-ticket item approved at Tuesday’s council meeting — roughly $1.3 million to purchase 40 police vehicles and related equipment. “If you want to say hold this ordinance, I might go along with that if you hold the next one,” Edwards said, referring to the police car purchase, which ultimately passed 7-1.
McMenamin, the only “no” vote, said the police department has “plenty” of squad cars, while the city’s unfunded pension liabilities, now topping $230 million, have “grown massively.”
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 