Temporary Step To Keep Pension Fund Afloat

Alabama Mobile Prichard Pension Board tries to make sure there will be money to pay retired workers.

by Steve Alexander

Published: Wed, March 25, 2009 - 8:14 pm CST Last Updated: Wed, March 25, 2009 - 8:29 pm CST

Action is being taken to try to make sure retired Prichard workers still get their pensions.
The pension board chairman says it's a step, not a permanent solution.
Wednesday afternoon, the board agreed to move the pension fund money out of the equities market, which Pension Board Chairman Troy Ephraim said, "is subject to the volatility of the stock market and the economy, obviously being at a tumultuous time right now, is causing a loss in those funds."
So instead of continuing to lose money, the board wants to move the pension fund to a money market account where it won't make much interest, but it won't suffer losses.
Retired workers had mixed reactions.
Retired Firefighter C. W. Currie said, "I think its going to be a step to help us, I believe."
T.C. James, a retired Prichard Police Officer, said, "What this all comes down to (is) they're wanting to cut our pensions again."
And that is a possibility.
Ephraim said the pension fund could run out of money by July so the next job is to, in his words, "figure out what steps need to be done by way of the city looking at perhaps maybe doing a restructuring or re-organization with the bankruptcy plan to see how that would cut off what we're paying out now to the pensioners, to hopefully have it reduced."
But Ephraim said, inevitably, the board will have to find money somewhere to put into the pension fund.
They're still looking for ideas on how to do that.

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mermaidmom Says:

Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 9:15 pm

What a big bunch of screw ups they have running Prichard!! The solution is simple. Shut the city down! Sell of everything not nailed down that hasn’t been “repurposed” & put all the proceeds into the pension fund. Indict the crooked mayor & councilmembers who mismanaged the city into its second bankrupcy in a decade. The Sheriff’s Office has already absorbed the bulk of Prichard’s policing duties, in addition to taking on all its prisoners from the jail. Let Prichard become an unincorporated part of the county until Sam Jones decides to annex it…which would make sense with the racetrack coming in. Add a percentage of the racetracks revenue into the pension fund to keep it functioning so that the “Regular Joes” who busted their butts can continue to draw their benefits. Problem solved.