Backers of SF Pension Reform To Submit Signatures

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Tuesday is the deadline for backers of a measure requiring all city employees to contribute to their pensions to submit signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

The measure would make a mandatory 9 to 10 percent retirement contribution mandatory for San Francisco's public employees and require them to pay half of any health care premiums for their dependents enrolled in city plans.

The $170 million savings projected by the measure's primary backer, Public Defender Jeff Adachi, is a solution in search of a problem according to the city's largest public employees union.

"This is not the way to do it. Adachi went off by himself and just made up this without discussing this with anyone at City Hall, said a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, Steve Stallone.

Stallone said the measure was drafted without consulting the Board of Supervisors, and does not enjoy support from the mayor.

Adachi believes the city cannot afford to continue guaranteeing a pension for every city worker without structural reform.

"The city employees get some of the best benefits around. You get a guaranteed pension upon your retirement, and in the private sector that's virtually unheard of nowadays. So the question became how can we sustain that and at the same time not make the city go broke."

The biggest chunk of San Francisco's budget actually goes towards pensions and health care, Adachi said.