PENSION MINUTES SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY

I asked for the City of Memphis pension board minutes for the last year and I recently got them. I will have to compliment Mayor Wharton and the City Attorney's Office for their handling of this request. They sent the files electronically which is a great improvement over the past administration. Congratulations.

In looking through the minutes several things jump out at me. First you have to understand that the pension board is made up mostly of insiders who have a self interest in the results of the board's decisions. Look at the make up in the attached file. There is only one public member representing the interests of the taxpayers who pay for a large portion of these pensions.

I find the following areas of interest.

• Disability retirements, ordinary versus line of duty
  
• Disability retirements in general in most cases are approved and where they are not there are lawyers available to take the matter to court.
  

It appears that line of duty pensions are more generous than ordinary pensions and therefore there is a great interest in getting a line of duty disability pension approved. I have attached a section of the pension ordinance on this subject.

Several other items in the minutes are interesting. Page 29 (Jack Sammons), Page 48 (Keith McGee and W. W. Herenton) and page 56 (Yalanda McFadgon).

Click here to see the City of Memphis pension board minutes for the last year

Click here to see the makeup of the City of Memphis pensioin board
Click here to read the provisions of the City of Memphis pensions plan concerning disability pensions