County Board OKs study of moving pension plan to state

Milwaukee County will study transferring all or part of its pension plan to the Wisconsin Retirement System, under a resolution adopted Thursday by the County Board.

On a 12-5 vote, the board approved a resolution by Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman that would create a special work group — made up of representatives of the county retirement office, the comptroller and corporation counsel — to identify steps needed in making such a transition.

Supervisors Peggy West and David Sartori said the state would never accept responsibility for the county’s problemprone and complicated pension system. Joining West and Sartori in voting against the study were Michael Mayo Sr., Willie Johnson Jr. and Supreme Moore Omokunde.

Mayo and Johnson said the county should fix the known problems with its system before considering a transition to the state.

Even a full merger of the county system with the state plan would not cause “a loss in pension benefit” for current retirees and employees, said Supervisor Deanna Alexander.

Wasserman introduced the resolution after a series of pension office mistakes and costly corrections were revealed in the last six months.

Former county retirement plan services director Marian Ninne man lost her job in February after failing to correct an overpayment to one beneficiary that amounted to $140,000 over several years. Ninne man had been informed of the overpayments three years earlier.

And a long-hidden 2014 report to the IRS summarizing hundreds of pension office errors was made public last month after it was released to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in response to a records request. County officials subsequently estimated it would cost nearly $2.18 million to correct the errors.

Those disclosures came less than three months after the county paid $11 million to make up for pension underpayments to a separate group of nearly 1,300 county retirees. By the end of last year, total payments to correct those mistakes had increased to $14 million.

County Executive Chris Abele revealed this month that he had not been informed of the 2014 report until late December of last year.

In response, Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr. introduced a resolution requiring the retirement plan services director, human resources director and corporation counsel to notify the executive and board within five business days of a report of errors to the IRS.

On a 17-0 vote Thursday, the board approved the ordinance change.

Abele has hired Baker Tilly to conduct an audit of pension calculations.

Also Thursday, the board approved a flood control project along the Kinnickinnic River in Pulaski Park. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District will remove concrete from the bed of the river in the park and widen the channel to improve the flow of floodwaters.

The board also confirmed the appointment of Margaret Daun as county corporation counsel.