Seattle Municipal News, v. 32, no. 46, Dec. 19, 1942

              Municipal League of Seattle for Governmental Research
Vol. XXXII. No. 46.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1942
5c per Copy
Page 189
The Municipal League of Seattle recommends to the 1943 State Legislature:
II. Home Rule for Fire-Police Relief and Pension Funds
Still awaiting solution in some basic and permanent form are the serious problems existing in the special
pension funds for members of the fire and police departmsnts, set up in state law by the legislature 30-odd years
ago. All schedules of benefits and other details, including methods of financing, it will be recalled, now are determined by the legislature. Neither fund is on an actuarial basis, and the Firemen's Relief and Pension Fund
has moved steadily toward complete bankruptcy over a period of years. Both funds provide retirement at half
pay, with similar benefits for widows and for disability. There is no administrative or other connection between
these funds, nor between them and the Employees' Retirement System covering the balance of Seattle's employees.
Under these circumstances it has been necessary particularly for members of the Fire Department to have
representation at each legislative session in Olympia, acting in conjunction with employees from other sections
of the state. Likewise it has been necessary for the City Council's legislative delegation to spend much time
working on this situation with members of the legislature, striving to develop sound tax contributions by the
city. And likewise, each legislature has had to go over these questions at each session, in an effort toward solution of the basic problems.
It is fundamentally true, owing to the larger police and fire forces and payroll schedules here, that the circumstances relating to these two funds are problems of the City of Seattle—just as is the general retirement
system for other employees. They are problems that cannot be determined finally and with equity to all concerned without attention to all the broad phases of municipal government in Seattle. It follows logically that
the only action required at present — one which will relieve the legislature from spending additional time in
every future session on this local problem — is for the legislature to turn the matter over to the City of Seattle,
where it belongs.
Why, for example, should the legislature, meeting in wartime to solve great issues revolving around the
state's participation in the total war effort, or at any other time for that matter, be required to determine
whether clerical employees in these two municipal departments should continue to receive the benefits paid to
police and firemen, or whether they should be transferred to the general retirement system with other city employees performing like duties?
Is there any reason why this wartime legislature should have to consider the question of adjusting the pension schedule paid widows of Seattle firemen or policemen, or why, for that matter, it should be distracted by
consideration of any phase of the relief and pension schedules paid Seattle police and firemen?
All of these questions are of vital importance — but they are important to the policemen and firemen, to the
governing authorities, and to the general public in the City of Seattle, rather than the State Legislature.
The Municipal League urges that the State Legislature seriously consider home rule for these pension funds.
With that accomplished, police and fire employees can work with city officials toward a permanent, equitable
solution, with due regard both to the rights of these employees and to the broad problems of municipal government.