Pension costs draining Miami

C. Esquijarosa

Master of Public Administration Capstone MMPA 6910, Section 2
Instructor Anne Hacker
February 21, 2010

Table of Contents

The City of Miami……....……………………..………………………………………………….1

The City of Miami vs. Gates Case………………………………………………………………..2

The retirement systems………………………...………………………………………………….2

The Research Question………..…………………………………………………………………..4

Stakeholders…………………………………...…………………………………………………..5

Ethical Issues…………………………..….………………………………………………………8

Data Gathering Methods….……………………………………………………………………..10

Data Analysis…….……………..………………………………………………………………..12

Conclusions and Recommendations.…………………………………………………………….13

Annotated Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………

Pension costs draining Miami

In 1896, the City of Miami (the “City”) became the first city to be incorporated in Miami-Dade County. It is the largest of 35 local municipalities within the County; has an estimated population of 404,048 people; and has a land area of 35 square miles (US Census Bureau, 2006). Miami employs 3,408 full-time positions and several hundred part-time positions (Miami, 2010, p.73). The City of Miami has three single-employer defined benefit pension plans: The City of Miami Firefighters’ and Police Officers’ Retirement Trust (FIPO); the City of Miami General Employees’ Retirement Trust (GESE); and the City of Miami Elected Officers’ Retirement Trust (EORT). With the exception of the EORT, participants in the FIPO and GESE pensions are required to contribute minimum percentages of their salaries. The City of Miami’s contributions are made from the city’s General Fund. (Miami, 2010, p.282) A single-employer defined benefit plan means that there is no portability of creditable service years for a retirement plan if one wanted to change employers and the pension payout of