MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING
MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
CITY OF PINEVILLE, LOUISIANA
FEBRUARY 3, 2003
PINEVILLE CITY HALL

The Mayor and City Council of the City of Pineville met in special session on the 3rd day of February at 12:00 noon.

ITEM 1 Mayor Fields called the meeting to order.

ITEM 2 Councilman Dorn offered the invocation.

ITEM 3 Councilman Bouchie led the Pledge of Allegiance.

ITEM 4 Roll call was as follows:

Present Councilman Dorn, Councilwoman Cunningham, Councilman Bouchie, Councilman King
Absent Councilman Bishop

ITEM 5 The Insurance Committee recommended that the proposal presented by Risk Management of $268,676.50 for property and liability premiums for 2003-2004, be accepted. On motion by Councilman King, seconded by Councilwoman Cunningham and passed, it was resolved to accept the recommendation.

ITEM 6 On motion by Councilman Dorn, seconded by Councilman Bouchie and passed, it was resolved to approve a resolution authorizing the City of Pineville to participate as a party plaintiff by joining with the Louisiana Municipal Association in the filing of a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana and the Board of Trustees of the Firefighters’ Retirement System to contest increases in the employers’ contribution to the Firefighters’ Retirement System; said increases in the employers’ contribution will increase the contribution rate from nine percent to eighteen and one-quarter percent beginning January 20, 2003 and to twenty-five percent beginning July 1, 2003; and providing for related matters.

WHEREAS, the City of Pineville employees 58 firefighters who are members of the statewide Firefighters’ Retirement System (“FRS”); and

WHEREAS, the City of Pineville has not had and does not presently have control over the operation, investments, or benefit structure of the FRS; and

WHEREAS, state law mandates that local governments that employ firefighters that are enrolled in the FRS are required to pay an employers’ contribution to the FRS for each such employee which contribution for all years since the inception of the retirement system had amounted to nine percent of payroll prior to this calendar year; and

WHEREAS, the state of Louisiana through the Public Retirement Systems’ Actuarial Committee has mandated that the employers’ contribution for the FRS be increased from nine percent to eighteen and one-quarter percent of payroll commencing January 20, 2003 and that the employers’ contribution be further increased to twenty-five percent of payroll as of July 1, 2003; and

WHEREAS, the increases in the employers’ contribution are required to amortize the unfounded accrued liability of the FRS that currently stands at approximately $246,000,000; and

WHEREAS, the existence of some if not all of such liability of the FRS is believed to have accrued over the past several years in violation of certain provisions of Louisiana Constitution Article X, Section 29(E); and

WHEREAS, the mandate by the state of Louisiana through the Public Retirement Systems’ Actuarial Committee that local governments pay such increases in the employers’ contribution is also believed to be in violation of the Louisiana Constitution Article VI, Section 14(A); and

WHEREAS, such an unfunded mandated increase in the employers’ contribution to the FRS will initially increase in dollars the employers’ contribution for the City of Pineville from $125,586.00 to $259,920.00 as of January 20, 2003 and from $259,920.00 to $359,616.00 as of July 1, 2003; and

WHEREAS, such increases in the employers’ contribution to the FRS will have a detrimental fiscal impact upon the City of Pineville which will likely impair its ability to provide funding for other necessary operating expenses of government; and

WHEREAS, the governing authority of the City of Pineville desires to contest the imposition of the said mandated increases to the employers’ contribution to the FRS and the adverse impact it will have on the delivery of governmental services.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the governing authority of the City of Pineville, that

SECTION 1. The City of Pineville is hereby authorized to join with the Louisiana Municipal Association as a party plaintiff in any lawsuit that the association may file seeking relief from the mandated requirement that local government employers pay increases in the employers’ contribution to the FRS and/or seeking an order that the state of Louisiana appropriate sufficient funds to pay all or a portion of the increased amount of the employers’ contribution (“the Lawsuit”).

SECTION 2. The city attorney is hereby authorized to participate, to the extent deemed necessary, with counsel for the Louisiana Municipal Association, the law firm of Kean, Miller, Hawthorne, D’Armond, McCowan & Jarman, L.L.P., as co-counsel in connection with the representation the parties plaintiff in the Lawsuit. 

There being no further business to come before the Council, on motion by Councilwoman Cunningham, seconded by Councilman Bouchie and unanimously passed, it was resolved to adjourn the meeting. The benediction was offered by Rich Dupree. 

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Clarence R. Fields, Mayor

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Date

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Ellen Melancon, City Clerk

I, Ellen Melancon, hereby certify that the attached and foregoing is a true and correct record of the official action taken at the Special Council Meeting of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Pineville, Louisiana, in legal session convened on the 3rd day of February 2003.

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Ellen Melancon, City Clerk