Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
Baltimore City’s fire and police unions have filed suit in Federal court against the city of Baltimore alleging that chronic underfunding of the pension system has created a financial nightmare for the pension system, breached their collective bargaining agreements, and violated the Constitutional rights of their members.
The suit comes at a time when city has embarked on a plan to reorganize the pension system by reducing benefits, increasing minimum retirement age, and changing the cost of living allowance.
The class action suit filed yesterday, June 3, 2010, in Federal District Court in Maryland alleges a breach of contract, violation of Constitutional due process rights, and unconstitutional impairment of contractual rights. It demands that the city make up for the payments that actuaries had recommended for the previous seven years, with interest, and asks that the court order the city to "cease and desist from enacting, executing or enforcing improper and illegal legislation" to alter the plan.
Public safety workers in Baltimore contribute 6% of their salary to the Fire & Police Employee’s Retirement Plan and the while the city also has to contribute – it has failed to contribute the actuarial required amount even during years that it had surplus funds.
The suit was filed by four named public safety employees, the Baltimore City Firefighters' IAFF, Local 734 and the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #3, Inc.
