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Yesterday, the City of New Orleans sued MPERS (again), claiming that retention payments paid to NOPD officers are not "earnable compensation" under Louisiana law because they weren't compensation "for a given month." Louisiana's attorney general disagrees.
If a judge agrees with the City's interpretation, then many police officers might receive lower retirement benefits then they would otherwise be entitled to. This lawsuit is in addition to the lawsuit against MPERS regarding the City of New Orleans' failure to properly convert its officers' unpaid sick leave to retirement service credit.
MPERS Executive Director and General Counsel Ben Huxen stated that "It's not surprising New Orleans has a police retention problem when it seems to fight its own officers tooth and nail for every benefit that they worked for and are entitled to under the law. Without consulting with MPERS, the City came up with a "retention" plan that fully incentivizes its longest-serving officers to retire as soon as possible after receiving a $20,000 retention payment in one lump sum. And now they don't even want to pay retirement contributions? If it's not compensation for a given month, then I guess we'll have to see what month the City is attributing the payments to for tax purposes to the Internal Revenue Service and the Louisiana Department of Revenue. MPERS is confident that common sense will prevail."
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