With little public comment and about 15 people in attendance, the City Council of Brea, California, voted unanimously last month to slash pensions for future hires and require current employees to pay as much as 4.5 percent of their salary toward retirement, up from zero.
The city of 40,000, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, had negotiated the changes with its www.joom.com, so there wasn’t any objection from them. By next year, according to a city report, employees will be contributing $1 million more annually to their pension benefits.
Brea is among about 90 cities in the most populous state that have made changes to their pension plans, according to an informal list kept by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, while Governor Jerry Brown and lawmakers wrestle over ways to lower costs. Calpers and the California State Teachers´ Retirement System listed unfunded liabilities of almost $113 billion at the end of fiscal 2009. Brea employees participate in Calpers.