HOUSTON – The city of Houston wants to take a look at firefighters' retirement data, but officials with the retirement fund program refuse to hand it over.
Mayor Annise Parker's office said the city has filed a lawsuit to see the data so the city can calculate pension benefits taxpayers will have to pay firefighters covered by the Houston Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund over the next 30 years.
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"We need access to this very basic information if we are to be able to protect taxpayers who foot the bills and the employees who deserve fair, financially secure retirements," said Parker. "We have to be able to be able to accurately plan for the future. It is a critical piece in our long-term budget process. Since our repeated requests for the information have been turned down, we are left with no alternative other than relief in the court system."
Officials said state law requires public retirement systems to undergo independent audits of their long-term predictions at least once every five years.
Back in 2008, officials with the city said an audit was done based on numbers pension officials released to the public, but no evaluation has been done on the numbers underlying that information.
Parker said the administration's refusal to provide information is a refusal to allow independent verification of their numbers.
"They want us to just trust them. When it comes to the use of taxpayer dollars, I am simply not willing to trust someone else's numbers. We have to be able to verify," said Parker.
The Houston Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund is controlled and administered by a separate and independent board.