At the same time, the city would restructure a financially troubled firefighters’ pension fund. “I would like to thank Mayor Landrieu and Councilmember Head for their leadership and determination to resolve this issue, the Business Council of New Orleans for their support throughout the negotiations, and the firefighters for their dedication to keeping our city safe and for working with us toward this resolution”.
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The City of New Orleans and representatives of its firefighters have reached a $100 million agreement that will put an end to a decades-old problem.
To pay for the settlement, the city plans on asking voters in April to approve a property tax increase of 2.5 mills. Sheriff Marlin Gusman butted heads with the Landrieu administration in seeking more money for jail construction costs as the city has juggled constructing a constitutional jail under the mandate of the consent decree. The millage would expire after 13 years, officials said.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu was threatened last month with house arrest over the issue, but the Louisiana Supreme Court ultimately intervened. Landrieu said “the big takeaway” from citywide public budget hearings this summer was “that people of New Orleans want solutions, real plans” to make this city safe and to create jobs, fix streets and offer more affordable housing.
“We inherited this mess”, Landrieu said Friday. Those changes, as well as tweaks to how the pension fund makes investment decisions, have been sought by the Landrieu administration as ways of putting the system back on track after years of poor investment decisions essentially wiped out its assets.
Landrieu argued the city could not afford to pay the firefighters in full, as it would cripple city services.
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Under a 1980s judgment, the city owed firefighters $75 million in back wages, plus $67 million in interest, because it had not given firefighters raises required by state law.
