Retired Mobile firefighters and police officers have been waiting nearly two decades for an increase to their pension payments. On Tuesday, the City Council delivered one.
The council approved the long-awaited cost-of-living adjustment pitched by Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis, authorizing a 2.5 percent increase for roughly 760 former public safety personnel. It is the first permanent boost to the city’s pension fund for fire and police retirees since 2008, when the last bonus was awarded.
Eighteen Years of Waiting
Randy Reed, president of the Mobile Fire Retiree’s Association, thanked the city ahead of the vote for presenting what he called a “modest step forward.” Council members, for their part, said the raise was well-deserved — and several wished the city could do more.
Retired fire investigator Jerry Hatch told reporters after the vote that everything has gotten more expensive since 2008 and that the increase will be a big help to people living on fixed pensions.
“We’re grateful for the City Council to acknowledge us, finally,” Hatch said.
For many retirees, the arithmetic has been unforgiving. A pension frozen at 2008 levels has absorbed nearly two decades of inflation — from healthcare premiums to groceries to insurance — without any adjustment. The 2.5 percent COLA does not make up that ground, retirees acknowledge, but it is the first movement in eighteen years.
What It Costs
The bonus will cost the city an estimated $493,000 every year for 30 years, for a total of $14.79 million. That is a significant commitment for a municipal budget, and city leaders have been careful to frame it as affordable only because of the pension fund’s improving health.
Cheriogotis said the city has made significant progress in paying down the pension plan’s multi-million dollar unfunded liability, and that the progress made the adjustment possible. According to the mayor’s office, the raise was made possible through decades of careful stewardship of taxpayer resources that has allowed the city to retire chunks of that liability, with the remaining balance expected to be paid down by March.
The mayor also signaled that this will not be the last increase of his administration. He said there will likely be another cost-of-living adjustment proposed during his tenure, calling it important to recognize the sacrifice and hard work of former public safety officers.
How the COLA Took Effect
The proposal was announced by the mayor’s office ahead of Tuesday’s council meeting, with the increase set to take effect Oct. 1 for eligible pensioners. The council’s approval puts the change in motion for the city’s fiscal year, which begins the same day.
“It’s important that we have the backs of the heroes who protected us for years,” Cheriogotis said when the proposal was unveiled. “This cost-of-living adjustment comes when these men and women need it the most, and it’s long overdue. I’m always proud to support those who answered the call to serve and protect this city, and I’m happy we were able to get this done.”
Why Public Safety Retirees Were Left Out
Mobile’s retired police officers and firefighters have long argued that their pension plan has been treated differently from the city’s general employee retirement system. A one-time bonus was awarded to the city’s other retirees last month, but the public safety plan — administered separately — went without any increase since 2008.
The distinction matters to the retirees because fire and police personnel in Alabama are generally excluded from Social Security coverage, making their municipal pension their primary retirement income. When that pension stagnates, there is no federal safety net adjustment to fall back on.
Advocates for the retirees have spent years lobbying council members, attending budget hearings and making the case that the city’s improving pension funded status should translate into relief for the people who built it. Tuesday’s vote is the result of that campaign.
What Comes Next
Retirees say they will keep pressing for a mechanism to provide regular cost-of-living adjustments in the future, rather than one-off increases that depend on budget conditions and political will. Several cities across Alabama have adopted COLA formulas tied to inflation for their public safety pensioners, and Mobile’s fire and police retiree associations have pushed for similar treatment here.
For now, the 2.5 percent increase represents the largest improvement in benefits for Mobile’s retired first responders in nearly two decades — and a recognition, council members said, of the decades those men and women spent protecting the city.