Wheat Ridge amends police pension rules to enroll recruits immediately and raise city contribution

Wheat Ridge City Council on Jan. 27 approved two measures affecting the police pension plan: an ordinance to permit police recruits to enroll in the city's sworn police pension plan upon hire, and a resolution to amend the plan adoption agreement to increase the city's contribution and lower the normal retirement age for sworn employees.

Deputy city management staff described the recruit change as an administrative fix. Under current code, recruits entering the academy are enrolled temporarily in the civilian plan for roughly six months and then moved into the sworn plan after graduation, causing extra paperwork and, in some cases, loss of employer vesting for recruits who closed the civilian account. Staff said the ordinance will allow recruits to be enrolled in the sworn pension plan from their first day; implementation will begin with July recruits.

Staff also presented a resolution to amend the sworn pension plan adoption agreement that does two things: increase the city's contribution to sworn employees by one-half percentage point (raising it from 12% to 12.5%) and reduce the normal retirement age from 55 to 50 to align with IRS rules for public safety employees. "Our recommendation to keep pace with neighboring and regional jurisdictions is to continue investing in our sworn pension plan, again, offset by the forfeiture release," the deputy city manager said. Staff explained the increase will be funded by the release of forfeiture funds collected when employees leave the plan, which may be used to offset employer contributions.

Council approved the ordinance and the resolution on second reading and by resolution, respectively, with unanimous votes. Council recorded no public speakers on either item. Councilors and staff said the changes should make pension administration simpler for staff and reduce the risk that recruits lose employer contributions because of account transfers.

Key implementation details captured in the meeting: the recruit-enrollment change will take effect for recruits starting in July; the employer contribution increases by 0.5 percentage point to 12.5%; the normal retirement age for sworn employees will be lowered to age 50 under the amended plan document; the contribution increase will be paid from forfeiture-release funds rather than a new ongoing general-fund appropriation.

The measures were presented as the result of a year of collaboration between city staff and the Police Pension Board and were described as steps to maintain regional competitiveness for recruiting and to streamline pension administration locally.