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Council approves police‑pension changes: member contribution to rise to 9% and staged COLA for retirees
Summary
The council approved an ordinance increasing police‑pension member contributions to 9% and establishing a phased cost‑of‑living adjustment for recent retirees, with a stepped funding plan that uses a state credit and phased city contributions to limit near‑term budget impact.
The Neptune Beach City Council approved an amendment to the city code on Aug. 19 that alters the police officers' retirement system by raising member contributions and granting cost‑of‑living adjustments.
Leona Shedden, a trustee of the Neptune Beach Police Pension Board, presented the ordinance requested by the pension trustees. The ordinance amends city code to increase member contributions from 8% to 9% effective Oct. 1, 2024, provides a phased annual cost‑of‑living adjustment for members who retired on or after Oct. 1, 2020 (1% starting Oct. 1, 2024, increasing incrementally to 3% by 2032), and grants a one‑time retroactive increase for retirees who retired before Oct. 1, 2020, up to a 10% maximum based on years of service.
Shedden told council the pension fund has a state credit of roughly $735,000. Council accepted a motion to approve the ordinance with a funding condition proposed by Councilor Messinger: the city will use half of the pension fund's available state credit in the first year, and the city general fund will begin contributing the remainder in stepped increments (an additional 10 percentage points of the city's share each year) so the budget impact is gradual rather than frontloaded.
Union representation on the board reported unanimous support in a membership vote for bringing the amendment forward to council. Councilor Key recused himself from the vote out of an abundance of caution because a family member could potentially benefit. The roll call shows four votes in favor (Livingston, Messenger, Vice Mayor Chen and Mayor Brown) and one recusal; the ordinance was approved with the stated funding approach.
The ordinance will be codified in the city code and filed with the Florida Department of Management Services Division of Retirement as required.
Provenance: ordinance language read into the record and pension board presentation began at SEG 4000; the council motion and roll call vote occurred at SEG 4270–SEG 4394.
