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Bucks County pensioner urges cost-of-living adjustment during retirement board public comment
Summary
A Bucks County pensioner used the board's public comment period to criticize the county for not granting cost-of-living adjustments and cited the county's obligation to make actuarially required contributions to the pension fund.
Mr. Sherman, a Bucks County pensioner, told the Bucks County Employees Retirement Board during public comment that he has repeatedly requested a cost-of-living adjustment and feels pensioners have been "stiffed" by the county.
At the Jan. 22, 2020 meeting, Mr. Sherman said this was "my fourth January in a row here with the same request, which has been met with the same answer," and added, "one of the reasons you were able to do that is because you stiffed us pensioners again out of a cost of living." He also criticized the timing of a mailed notice, saying it arrived after Christmas.
The commenter referenced legal obligations around pension funding, saying "the law says, the actuarially required contribution is an obligation of the county," and characterized the county's notice and communication as insufficient. He said he would continue to look for reasons to be grateful but that repeated nonresponse had left him "cranky and bitter." His allotted public-comment time then expired.
The transcript records Mr. Sherman's remarks in the public-comment portion of the meeting; no formal board response or decision on cost-of-living adjustments is recorded in the meeting minutes or the record of the Jan. 22 session.
The remarks join a longstanding discussion by at least one pensioner pressing county officials for changes to retiree pay indexing; the board did not take any formal action tied to the comment during the meeting.
