San Francisco Pension Fund Grows

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – Officials are reporting that San Francisco's public employee retirement fund appears to be on its way to full economic recovery.

Gary Amelio, the executive director of the city's retirement fund, laid out the numbers during his budget presentation to the Supervisors' Budget Committee this week.

"The pension fund has been recovering very nicely, and we are now in excess of $15 billion. Two weeks ago we were in excess of $15.5 billion," said Amelio.

KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:

The high water mark was three years ago when it was at $16.5 billion before crashing below $11 billion and sparking the city's pension crisis. However, now Amelio said the fund is righting itself, which takes some pressure off the system.

"We've been at about a 20 percent return, which is just astronomical," said Amelio. "I expect we'll close the books at about 19 percent."

Before the meltdown, the pension system was fully funded, now the city must dip into the general fund to pay for retirement benefits, and despite the improvement, that will likely continue.

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