Mediation Useful in Resolving Pension Disputes
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (photo: mitchlandrieu.com)
In several cities where pension reform has failed, mediation has proved beneficial, according to a recent article written by Liz Farmer for Governing Magazine, a highly respected journal for the public sector.
Earlier this month, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu stood with Nick Felton, president of the firefighters union, at a press conference calling for voters to approve a small property tax increase. The symbolism was significant. Felton and Landrieu had been on opposite sides in a bitter battle over firefighter pension funding and backpay for the past half-decade. The tax increase they’re asking for would help the city meet its part of a deal that would put an end to the longstanding dispute.
What finally got both sides to budge in a fight that predates Landrieu’s administration was going through a roughly 14-month mediation. The process involved a pension task force made up of business and community members who worked with consultants to find a unanimous plan for saving the failing pension.
New Orleans is now the third city to turn to this type of help for pension reform, and the process is so far proving successful in places where tensions are running high and strong-arming — by both sides — has failed. New Orleans has been the toughest test yet, said consultant Vijay Kapoor, who has been a mediator for pension task forces in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Lexington, Ky. “The first time we brought everyone together, it lasted 20 minutes before [each side] was shouting,”The issues and resentments on both sides were deep. Despite several court rulings, the city still had not paid firefighters the $75 million it owed them in backpay. The dispute had been going on so long — the original lawsuit dates back to the mid-1990s — that dozens of firefighters have died without getting what they were owed.
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