Page 16--Thursday, May 17, 1979--The Michigan Daily City pension fund deficit may increase By JOHN GOYER Ann Arbor will owe its pension fund about $180,000 this year if City Council approves the city's 1979-80 budget as proposed, City Controller Mary Devers revealed last night. If the city does not take action to revise the budget now, it will fall behind on payments to the fund at a greater rate each year, Devers told City Coun- cil. "THE SORT OF snapshot picture you're getting now is not that disastrous," Devers said. "The thing that is alarming is that we are begin- ning to fall behind and the amount that we're falling behind is increasing." Devers spoke last night before a City Council working session on the proposed $43.8 million 1979-80 city budget. The city's pension fund covers all city employees except those in the Solid Waste Department, which has its own pension plan. Dissertation noted A University doctoral dissertation has received the "Dissertation of the Year" award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Kenneth Orr, president of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (PSCE), was honored April 18 at the Association's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., for his research titled "The Impact of the Depression Years, 1929-1939, on Faculty in American Colleges and Universities." Orr received his Ph.D. last spring from the Center for the Study of Higher Education in the University School of Education. President of PSCE since 1974, he will become president of Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. July 1. THE CITY'S pension plan currently has assets of $29 million, but the fund eventually is expected to provide $42 million in retirement benefits, in- cluding benefits for those currently working for-the city. The city is in the 29th year of a 35- year schedule for making up the $14 million difference, and it is falling behind on this payment schedule, Devers said. Devers also said the sum the city must pay to the pension fund will in- crease year after year because the city hires more employees. In addition, employees are deman- ding more retirement benefits from the same fund, and the federal government is asking a larger percentage of the employees' paychecks each year for social security. MAYOR LOUIS Belcher outlined four ways of obtaining the money needed to meet the payment schedule: * The city could take more money from the general fund and sacrifice services. " It could renegotiate city employee contracts so that the employees are en- titled to less. " It could contract city work to private companies, the employees of which would not be covered by the city's pension plan. " City Council could increase proper- ty taxes, a step which would require voter approval. Councilwoman Leslie Morris (D- Second Ward) attributed the shortfall in pension payments to two factors. Either city employees were asking too much from the plan, she said, or in- flation was decreasing the value of the fund. MORRIS NOTED that if the latter were the case, then contracting the work to private comp-anies would not solve the problem, since employees from private businesses would be covered by other pension funds or social security. In addition to reviewing the proposed budget for the city controller's office, Council last night also reviewed proposed budgets for the city treasurer, the market fund, non-departmental programs, and the SWD. City Administrator Sylvester Murray said the city was studying ways to con- It.ct out the refuse collection services the city provides. Councilwoman Morris asked Murray to prepare infor- mation for Council concerning the level of service that a private company might provide. MORRIS SAID some private com- panies place a limit on the number of containers they would pick up at each building. This service would not be ap- propriate for Ann Arbor, she said, because of the large number of apar- tment buildings in the city.. SWD Director Ulysses Ford told Council the department planned two major changes in the coming year. He said that while the SWD was asking for more money to operate the city's new solid waste shredder, it would save money by cutting out three refuse collectors' positions. Ford said the department will provide the same level of refuse collec- tion service with six two-man crews as it provided before with five three-man crews. But, he added that the switch to two-man crews would allow the depar- tment to eliminate three positions. AA TA names new executive director By MARJORIE BOHN THE AATA executive director will be great deal of experience," said Ur- The Ann Arbor Transportation responsible for the guidance and ad- sprung. Authority (AATA) last night announced ministration of AATA's 102-vehicle the appointment of a Colorado transit transit system. AATA employs 250 The AATA board held an extensive system manager as its new executive people and has a $6 million budget. nationwide search over the past three director. months to find a successor for former Richard Simonetta, 32, accepted the Simonetta- currently is the Deputy Executive Director Karl Guenther, who job offer after "financial arrangemen- General Manager for Transit resigned from the position in Septem- ts" were finalized, said Cecil Ursprung, Operations in Denver, Colorado. His ber 1978. Guenther resigned after a con- AATA board member. Ursprung said career has spanned eight years and troversy over AATA policy changes. Simonetta will assume the AATA post three different transit systems in all Robert Works, assistant director of the June 13 with a salary of $43,400 per year areas and management levels. 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