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St. Louis firefighters check access to Centennial Christian Church on Friday, May, 16, 2025, after parts of the church collapsed when a tornado struck the Fountain Park neighborhood of St. Louis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christian Gooden, Post-Dispatch<\/p>\n
ST. LOUIS \u2014 A long fight to claw back some of the power it lost during a pension reform push 13 years ago ended in victory for the city\u2019s firefighters union Friday, when Gov. Mike Kehoe signed legislation that puts a firefighter-dominated board back in control of its pension system.<\/p>\n
The state legislation was needed to enact a March 2024 ordinance the St. Louis Board of Alderman passed over a mayoral veto<\/a>. That ordinance put an older pension board in charge of the plan for current firefighters. The older board had a majority of firefighters; the newer plan was overseen by a board with a majority of city appointees.<\/p>\n The change has been backed for years by the St. Louis Firefighters Association (IAFF Local 73), which argued it would save on plan administration expenses and boost morale for firefighters.<\/p>\n \n People are also reading\u2026\n <\/p>\n But city officials, including Budget Director Paul Payne and former Comptroller Darlene Green<\/a>, warned it could hurt the city\u2019s balance sheet. The changes in 2012 to put city appointees in charge of the fire department\u2019s retirement benefits was a response to market losses in the aftermath of the Great Recession. At one point, some one-third of the fire department budget was allocated to pension costs.<\/p>\n Under changes former Mayor Francis Slay said were necessary to keep soaring pension liabilities in check, the old system was closed to new members, and a new retirement plan was created for new hires with less generous benefits. Existing retirees or those who worked under the old system did not lose any benefits.<\/p>\n A decade later, though, the firefighters union began pushing to undo some of those changes. Two former mayors, Lyda Krewson and Tishaura O. Jones, vetoed bills passed by aldermen moving control of the pension board back to firefighters. Aldermen overrode Jones\u2019 second veto.<\/p>\n The most recent city ordinance sponsor, Alderman Bret Narayan, has pointed out the change does not affect current benefits and any increase in pension benefits will need to be approved separately by aldermen. Then-Alderwoman Cara Spencer, now the mayor, voted for Narayan\u2019s bill and to override Jones\u2019 veto.<\/p>\n Critics, though, say the pension board does control the hiring of actuaries to do required studies assessing the health of the pension fund, and it could take a more aggressive stance in pushing for new benefits.<\/p>\n Payne has argued administrative overhead is far higher on the old board, which has also lavished its employees with perks and bonuses. Vicky Grass, former executive director of the old system, retired in 2015 with a $579,210 cash payout and a $4,800 monthly pension<\/a>. Her daughter-in-law, Lauren Grass, is an assistant executive director of the old retirement system.<\/p>\n The change in local law needed a corresponding change in state law to become effective. The provision was put into two separate bills in the most recent legislative session. Kehoe signed one Monday and one on Friday at St. Louis Fire Department headquarters, where fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson stood behind him.<\/p>\n The provision was part of a larger bill that included tuition assistance for police, firefighters and paramedics, among other first responders.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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