Committee hears bill to codify use of settlement payments in St. Louis police pension calculations

House Bill 147 was presented to the House Pensions Committee on Oct. 12, 2025, to clarify how lump-sum settlement payments are treated when police officers in the St. Louis Police Retirement System seek to apply those payments to their final average salary for pension calculations.

Representative Barry Hovis, who introduced the bill, told the committee the measure would codify an existing board policy that requires an actuary to determine the amount of a settlement that must be contributed to the pension fund before the settlement may be used in a final average salary calculation. "When the city settles that lawsuit ... they come over to us and say, the city gave me the money as if I was a lieutenant. Now you pay me the retirement at a lieutenant's wage," Hovis said, explaining the system-level liability concern when large settlements are added into final-average-salary calculations without making the system whole.

The bill responds to a pattern the system has experienced where settlements from promotion or pay disputes resulted in large payments some participants sought to include in retirement calculations. John Bargier, appearing on behalf of the Saint Louis Police Retirement System, told the committee the board already applies a case-by-case actuarial process to ensure the system is not left with unfunded liabilities. "We have established a policy that is, the actuarial, as Representative Hovis said, on a case by case basis," Bargier said, adding that codifying the policy would provide clarity for future cases.

Committee members asked whether the change was new and whether the board already had authority to handle such settlements. Representative Clemens recalled the measure had been before the committee previously and said he believed it passed the committee unanimously in an earlier session. Hovis and Bargier said the policy exists in practice and that the bill would make the rule explicit in statute.

No formal vote was recorded at the hearing. The chair asked for a show of hands in favor and against and then closed public testimony for the bill. The committee worksheet and testimony record show supporters from the St. Louis Police Retirement System and no witnesses in opposition during the hearing.

The bill would leave in place the board’s current case-by-case, actuary-led process: a participant may opt to use a settlement toward retirement calculations only after an actuarial determination and payment sufficient to remove any resulting liability from the pension system. The committee concluded the hearing with staff instructions to ensure witness forms were completed and with no formal action taken on final passage.

Questions about the bill’s exact text and how it would interact with other pension statutes were raised and left open for follow-up; several committee members asked staff or sponsors to provide additional details if requested.

The committee did not adopt or defeat the bill on the day of the hearing.