by Aaron Hanson, President

Despite the recent misinformation and political spin it is important that Omaha’s taxpayers know that the Police Union’s recent pension offer was a real step towards addressing our cities long-term pension dilemma. This offer – one that would have eliminated so called "spiking" - was by no means intended as the end of the negotiations process, but rather as another good faith step forward in an ongoing process of negotiations.

We have a problem within the City of Omaha‘s Police and Fire pension system, a problem that did not happen overnight but one that did develop under the watch of the current Mayor and six out of seven of our current councilmen.

In 2003, the City of Omaha was in the midst of financial crisis and approached its police officers for help. The offer; forgo raises in return for a pension benefit increase and save the City millions of dollars. In addition to the forfeited pay raise, the deal also required officers to pay the City a "user fee" of sorts in return for the pension enhancement which resulted in the most senior officers giving back as much as $2700 each to the City’s general fund. The headline of an Omaha World Herald article detailing the deal said it all "New police pact a money saver – The union contract approved by the City Council cuts pay while enhancing pension benefits."

Then, in 2004, just one year later, the City offered yet another pension enhancement, once again in return for concessions on wages and once again all in the name of helping the City out of a financial crisis and once again, police officers accepted the City’s offer. This time, however, there were more cautionary words from some councilmen, all of whom voted for the deal, such as Councilman Jim Vokal who said it was "like buying with a credit card" and Councilman Dan Welch who said "I’m concerned we’re putting off our problems to another year". Other City Councilmen, such as Chuck Sigerson, spoke more highly of the deal saying "I commend the Mayor for holding the line on property taxes. Omaha has really bit the bullet compared to a lot of other taxing authorities".

The bottom line is this: Given the history, our pension situation shouldn’t be a surprise to our city’s elected leadership. Perhaps there were unintended consequences; but over the past five years, both the Mayor and the City Council had a major hand in creating the current pension dilemma and it will require the dedication, focus and good faith efforts of all affected parties to solve it.

Let’s say you arrive home tomorrow only to learn that you face a huge credit card bill or other seemingly insurmountable debt due to past financial decisions. You wouldn’t want your spouse to simply throw up his or her hands, storm out of the room and demand a divorce as opposed to sitting down to talk out and actually solve the problem. This is exactly the issue in our city today. This lack of leadership to find a real solution is simply inhibiting the resolution of this issue at the expense of our future tax liability.

The City committed to merely four negotiations meetings and just over 6 hours of discussion towards this $320,500,000 dilemma. While their lack of commitment may seem confounding to the average taxpayer, I have now come to believe I know why the City seemed so disinterested in actually solving this problem; they never intended to fix it at all, it was simply too politically difficult.

It is disappointing when elected leaders, obviously focused on their own political futures, find it more politically convenient to have the courts provide a short-term fix instead of being dedicated to identifying a long-term solution.

The taxpayers of Omaha should watch closely as the pension fund’s liability continues to grow and this dispute moves through the courts. Please remember that your police officers’ were trying to find a real solution, and I might add; still believe a negotiated solution is still possible. Unfortunately, your elected politicians have thrown up their hands, stormed out of the room and demanded a divorce.

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