FIN-2.15 - Pension Funding Policy

Binding City Policies (BCP)
Policy number
FIN-2.15

PENSION FUNDING POLICY

Binding City Policy

BCP-FIN-2.15


Policy

It is the City’s policy to provide retirement benefits for its employees once they meet specified qualifications. The City currently participates in two retirement plans: the State of Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) and the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Trust (FPDR), which is administered by the City. The purpose of this policy is to establish minimum standards for the proper funding of its pension obligations.

State of Oregon PERS

The City of Portland is an employer-participant in the State of Oregon PERS as established in ORS 238.600. Actuarial valuations of PERS are performed for the Public Employees Retirement Board (PERB) to evaluate PERS’ assets and liabilities and indicate its current and prospective financial condition. The PERB determines employer-participant contribution rates, which are then used to calculate each employer-participant’s annual required contribution. It is the City’s policy to make contributions at no less than the rate established by PERB and required by ORS 238.225.

FPDR Funds

The City maintains the FPDR Fund and the FPDR Reserve Fund as established by City Charter, Chapter 5 for sworn employees of the City’s Fire and Police Bureaus who were first sworn before January 1, 2007. Sworn police and fire employees first sworn on or after January 1, 2007 are members of the Public Employees Retirement System of the State of Oregon and subject to Oregon PERS regulations and requirements for police and fire employees. Actuarial valuations and levy adequacy analyses of FPDR are performed at least every two years for the FPDR Board of Trustees (Board). In addition, the Board advises City Council of the annual funding requirements and requests that the amount be levied. It is the City’s policy to establish rates annually for the special FPDR property tax levy sufficient to provide the amounts necessary to meet the estimates provided by the FPDR Board.

To the extent that FPDR Plan funding is less than the required payment of benefits in a particular year, advances may be made to the Plan from the FPDR Reserve Fund and repaid from the special property tax levy in the succeeding year. In the event the special property tax levy is insufficient to pay benefits due to tax levy rate limitations, it is the City’s policy to fund the difference from the FPDR Reserve Fund.

It is the City’s policy that the FPDR Board and the Fund Administrator manage the FPDR Plan in a manner such that the dedicated levy shall remain sufficient to fully cover annual Plan expenses. In the event the dedicated levy is not fully sufficient for a period of time, it is the City’s policy to arrange sufficient resources for the FPDR Fund, which the FPDR Fund shall then repay from future levies, to fully cover Plan expenses.

Responsibility

The Accounting Division of the Office of Management and Finance (OMF), in conjunction with OMF’s Public Finance and Treasury Division, the City Budget Office, and the Bureau of Fire and Police Disability and Retirement, is responsible for implementing this policy.


HISTORY

Resolution No. 37086, adopted by City Council August 6, 2014.

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