The Budget Advisory & Financial Planning Committee will meet again Tuesday, May 22, 2012  6:00 p.m. Emergency Operations Center, in the Police Department at 403 Highland Avenue.  No recordings or broadcasts of the meeting will be available.  Those interested in hearing or observing the proceedings must attend the meeting.

The agenda includes:

• Discuss impacts of pension/health benefits and potential recommendation

• Review and discuss five year projections regarding general fund revenue, expenditures and transfers including assumptions, risk factors and potential upsides

• Discussion regarding the Committee’s report to City Council

City Council also to discuss litigation in closed session -

The City Council is scheduled to approve management employee contracts for the  City Clerk/Management Information Systems Manager, Director of Finance, Fire Chief, Chief of Police, Director of Public Works, and Director of Recreation on May 21.   As with other recent contracts, lower cost pension plans will be established for new (but not existing) employees in these positions.

The Council will also consider spending up to $24,000 for recruiting a new Police Chief to replace Chief John Hunt, who has announced his retirement on June 22, 2012. Of three recruitment proposals received, the City Administrator recommends enlisting the highest cost proposal by Bob Murray & Associates due to their expertise and experience in recruiting for similar positions.

In closed session, pending and potential litigation regarding Blair Park will be considered, as well as undergrounding litigation against Robert Gray Associates and Harris & Associates.

The open session will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 120 Vista Avenue on May 21, 2012.  Click here for full agenda and staff reports.

Fiscal Year 2012-2013 Budget to be Considered by City Council

The Piedmont City Council will consider the 2012-13 City Budget at three separate meetings.  The first meeting is a Special Meeting work session that will be held in the Police Department Emergency Operations Center EOC on Saturday, May 19, 2012 beginning at 9:00 a.m.  No broadcasting via KCOM or the internet is planned. Interested persons must be present to hear the discussions. > Click to read more…

3 Meetings to Deliberate Budget Choices -

Click to visit the 2012-2013 Proposed Budget for the City of Piedmont.  The City Council will begin its discussion of the 2012-13 budget at a Saturday work session, on May 19, 2012 beginning at 9:00 a.m in the Police Department EOC.

The second and third budget discussions will include public hearings on June 4 and June 18, 2012.  There will also be discussion on the levy of the Municipal Services Tax and the Sewer Tax. > Click to read more…

Piedmont’s Actuarial Consultant attended the May 8 meeting of the Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee (BAFPC).  For the first two hours of the meeting, actuary Marilyn Oliver of Bartel Associates, LLC answered the committee’s questions about Piedmont’s employee pension plans so that they could evaluate its possible future costs for the City. > Click to read more…

Two Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) studies released in December 2011 and February 2012 paint a sobering picture of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).  “Actuaries and pension boards make assumptions about future investment returns and pension costs. Unfortunately, they’ve been wrong.  They have overestimated investment earnings, underestimated pension costs and retroactively added benefits without proper funding.  As a result, pension systems across California have huge unfunded liabilities.” > Click to read more…

In late April, 2012, California’s Attorney General filed a civil fraud suit against two defendents, Federico R. Buenrostro, formerly the CEO of CalPERS and Alfred J.R. Villalobos, former Board member of CalPERS, in tandem with a civil suit by the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission.  The two are accused of fabricating documents with a fake CalPERS logo purporting to represent CalPERS approval of “placement agent” fees of $20 million to be paid to the pair by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which handled some CalPERS investments.

New 2-tier retirement plans and employee contributions to benefit costs; City’s benefit costs inch upwards -

Proposed new employee contracts for various Piedmont non-safety city workers will hold salaries steady and create a 2-tier retirement plan, but run counter to 2011 Municipal Tax Return Committee (MRTC) recommendations to cap the city’s escalating benefit costs.  No specific cost impacts from this contract are provided by the staff report, nor an analysis in respect to the MTRC recommendation.

The 2011 MTRC recommended “significant immediate action with regard to employee pension and other benefits to freeze these costs and to ultimately make changes that reduce the costs as a percent of salaries.”   (Emphasis added.)   It was recommended that the city negotiate its employee contracts with “the goal of capping employee benefit costs at the current level of $5.18 million per year . . .“

The proposed new contracts provide the city will share 50% of increased pension contribution costs if they rise above a certain level.  The City will bear 100% of increased health insurance and other benefit costs.  Medical costs are anticipated to rise 7% per year in the future, dental 2.6%, and vision 1%.  See Staff Report on Employment Contracts with 4 Employee Groups > Click to read more…

No Broadcast, No Recordings, No Minutes -

The City Council formed the Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee (BAFPC) in response to 2011 Municipal Tax Review Committee recommendations.  The BAFPC will be providing advice to the Council on five-year financial projections and expenditures of more than $250,000.  The Committee is composed of Mary Geong, Steven Hollis, Bill Hosler (Chair), Tom Lehrkind, and Tim Rood.  The Members are taking their > Click to read more…

At its last meeting the Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee (BAFPC) selected 8 critical budget topics for in-depth review.  A draft of each topic will be prepared by individual committee members and presented for discussion at the next May 8, BAFPC meeting. > Click to read more…