Seattle, April 16, 2011

(Download entire article as PDF file.)

Last week we were comfortable that we could skate through this legislative session without an attack on LEOFF 1.WE WERE WRONG!The attack surfaced on Thursday, April 14th when House Bill 2097 was dropped.

Here is the bill digest as posted on the Legislature’s web site.
“Merges plans 1 and 2 of the law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system.”

What the bill does.

  • It sets the contribution rates for LEOFF 2 for the period of July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2013.

  • It combines the current LEOFF 1 and LEOFF 2 pension trust funds.

  • It renames the plans to the Law Enforcement and Fire Fighters Retirement System.

  • It places LEOFF 1 under the governance of the LEOFF 2 Retirement Board.

  • It empowers the Retirement Board to set rates and adjust benefits.

  • It gives all of LEOFF 1 funds and control over to LEOFF 2

This bill was planned, conceived, written and proposed without any notice to any LEOFF 1 organization.In fact, even the Association of Washington Cities was unaware of this legislation until yesterday.All of the stakeholders except LEOFF 2 were left out of the process.The result is a bad bill for everyone.

I will review each of these areas in depth in this article but it suffices to say that this is a bad deal for LEOFF 1.It is a bad deal for the cities, it is a bad deal for the counties, it is a bad deal for the fire districts and it is even a bad deal for LEOFF 2 although they don’t yet realize it.

WE MUST ACT QUICKLY TO STOP THIS BILL IN ITS TRACKS.

See “WHAT YOU CAN DO” for information about things you can do the help this effort.

In this article we will review how this came about, why it is a bad bill and what we need to do to stop it.Please be sure to read it through and PLEASE act quickly.

You may see some LEOFF 1 organization jumping on this to raise money.The argument will be that we are being raided and need to build a war chest to stop it.That time may come but not yet.When and if it does come, only give money to an organization that will provide you with a financial accounting of their spending and with officers and board members you can elect.