A lawyer with the San Diego's City Attorney office is making an appeal to the city's pension board this morning. The City Attorney says city employees should contribute more to the retirement fund.
San Diego will have to pay nearly $232 million into its pension plan by the end of June. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith says about $80 million of that will cover investment losses, but he says a clause in the city charter and a 1954 legal opinion by the attorney who drafted the clause says employees and the city must split the cost of investment losses. Goldsmith says it's his job to enforce the city charter.
"That's the number one thing we do, just as the Attorney General at the state level interprets the Constitution to begin with," Goldsmith said. "That doesn't mean that's the last word on it. I understand that. But I haven't seen anything that gives a contrary opinion."
Roughly $40 million dollars will have to be split among 10,200 employees if the pension board agrees with the City Attorney. It’s estimated the city’s annual pension contribution could eventually peak at $500 million.
