The city of San Diego's contribution to the San Diego City Employees Retirement System will be less in the upcoming fiscal year, when compared to the current and prior years, according to a report delivered Tuesday to the City Council.
The Actuarially Determined Contribution, or ADR — which used to be called the "ARC" — will be $254.9 million, payable July 1, said Gene Kalwarski, an actuary who consults for SDCERS, which runs retirement programs for city employees.
That's down from $263.6 million in the current fiscal year, and $275.4 million the year before that.
The figure for next year is lower even though it includes an extra $4 million or so to pay for a new administrative system that's being implemented by the agency.
In his presentation, Kalwarski said the city's unfunded pension liability — or pension debt — was $2.03 billion as of June 30, the end of the last fiscal year. That compares to around $2.2 billion the year before.
A strong investment performance accounted for most of the good news, along with the impact of deaths and retirements among members in the system, Kalwarski said.
"The trend lines are heading in the right direction, in part because our employees are picking up a whole lot more of the costs," said Councilman Todd Gloria, who chairs the panel's Budget Committee.
He noted that the city has paid its entire annual contribution for 10 years now.
Councilman Chris Cate credited voters for passing a few ballot measures that reformed SDCERS.
The presentation was given for information purposes, so the council took no action.
