No retirees within the Municipal Police Employees Retirement System have had their retirement payments withheld, despite system officials announcing five months ago they planned to do so until the city-parish stopped including overtime pay in its contributions to former Baton Rouge police officers.
But since January, MPERS has requested the city-parish break down their retirement payment calculations into codes, says Sheri Morris, a partner at Daigle, Fisse & Kessenich, which represents MPERS.
The retirement system is analyzing the data Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s administration has provided them and will report back to the city-parish with which codes they consider pensionable wages.
Future retirement payments could depend on the outcome of a meeting between MPERS and the city-parish next Wednesday, Morris says, during which the two separate payment calculations will be assessed.
Until then, the system will handle all retirees on a case-by-case basis.
“Fortunately, we haven’t had a lot of people retire in this timeframe,” Morris says.
As of May 31, MPERS has 16,770 participants and some 5,073 retirees, beneficiaries and survivors, she notes.
Broome, in a prepared statement, echoed Morris’ comments, saying, “We are in weekly discussions between the city-parish, MPERS and the police union. Our goal is to enter into an MOU governing how the parties will handle retirement and DROP entry until a resolution can be reached.”
Both parties hope to reach an agreement by July or August at the latest.
