FORT WORTH — The president of the Fort Worth Professional Firefighters said Tuesday night that the group plans to move forward with a lawsuit against the city over the benefit reductions that the City Council approved by a 6-3 vote.
“When these pension changes go into effect, it will be a taking. We will be joining the police officers in that federal suit,” said Jim Tate, the association’s president. The group must vote on filing the lawsuit, Tate said. The cuts will affect firefighters hired before Jan. 10, 2015, and include reducing the multiplier used to calculate benefits from 3 percent to 2.5 percent, using the high five years instead of three years to determine retirement pay, and eliminating overtime that is not built into a firefighter’s salary from calculations. The changes had already been approved for firefighters hired after Jan. 15, 2015, and for the city’s two other worker groups — police and general employees. “It does put the fire on par with the rest of our employees, and going forward this is all going to get resolved in federal court. We believe that putting them in the same plan with the rest of our employees is the proper thing to do at this time,” said Councilman W.B. “Zim” Zimmerman, who voted for the reductions. Council members Jungus Jordan, Ann Zadeh and Kelly Allen Gray voted against the changes. “On the vote to make changes for new hires, it was a little easier for me. But making changes to people who already have pensions they are depending on in place, that is a little bit harder for me to do,” Zadeh said. Tate said the reductions will force firefighters to retire later to maintain their current benefits. The current average retirement age is 59, he said, but he expects that to jump into the 70s. “I feel bad not only for the firefighters but for the citizens of this city that the interest of the wealthy business owners takes precedence over the citizens who are going to be served by these elderly firefighters in the years to come,” Tate said. Settling it in courtRick Van Houten, president of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association, and Steve Hall, the former president, are suing over changes in pension benefits for general and police employees approved by the council in 2012.The lawsuit accuses the city of contract impairment, violation of due process, unlawful taking of property, and violating the U.S. and Texas constitutions in reducing pension benefits for future service. The council reduced the multiplier used to calculate benefits, raised the number of years for retirement pay and eliminated overtime from calculations.City Manager David Cooke said that the situation between the two groups is not “combative” but that “we both agreed to let the courts decide who is right.”“One of the challenges certainly is we are in litigation with the police over our ability to do what we already did. The firefighters have simply said they are going to join the police and see what the courts will actually decide,” Cooke said. The council also approved a four-year labor contract with the firefighters, which the Fort Worth Professional Firefighters voted to approve over the weekend. Tate said they were “backed into a corner” on the contract, which includes raises each year and stricter rules about sick time to help offset the city’s overtime expenses. But the two sides could not agree on the pension reductions.The firefighters association was pushing a deal that would have allowed separating the firefighters’ pension from the Fort Worth Employees Retirement Fund. The tactic would have allowed firefighters to increase their own contributions to maintain the formula for retirement benefits. The city’s contributions would have remained the same. But the city contends that breaking the funds apart would expose the city to litigation from general and police employees.The contract for firefighters expired Sept. 30. This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.Caty Hirst, 817-390-7984 Twitter: @catyhirst
