‘Yes’ on Amendments 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 : The five proposed technical revisions will be on the Los Angeles ballot April 11

The April 11 Los Angeles municipal ballot offers five technical City Charter amendments that warrant “yes” votes.

Charter Amendment 4: It would expand the Board of Administration of the City Employees’ Retirement System (CERS) to seven members, including one retired member. Currently a five-member board governs CERS, the retirement system for all city employees who do not belong to the Fire and Police Pension System, the Water and Power Employees’ Retirement Plan or the Pension Savings Plan. Since 1955, the City Charter has prohibited retired employees from serving as board members. An expanded board would allow retirees to elect one retired member. The other seat would go to an appointee of the mayor. Additional cost would be a maximum of $6,000 for attendance fees.

Charter Amendment 5: Approval would allow administrative costs of CERS to be paid directly from retirement fund assets. The charter now requires the city to provide for those costs from the city general fund. The City Council would still be responsible for paying annual administrative expenses from the general fund, but it would have a choice: to use either general fund monies to pay the entire administrative costs at the beginning of the budget year or to authorize the board to pay the costs from the retirement fund. The money would be repaid, with interest, over time from the general fund. The change, which would update accounting practices to match other retirement systems, would initially save the general fund about $15 million.

Charter Amendment 6: Passage would allow a CERS member to name a legal entity, such as a trust or nonprofit group, as a beneficiary. Currently an active or retired CERS member is limited to naming a person as a beneficiary. No additional costs are expected.

Charter Amendment 7: Approval would give the City Council the necessary authority to make future changes to the Fire and Police Pension System by ordinance in order to conform with future federal tax code changes. Currently, any change to the Fire and Police Pension System can be made only through the cumbersome process of a charter amendment approved by the voters. No additional cost to the city is expected.

Charter Amendment 8: This measure would allow the Department of Airports to create separate fund accounts for the department’s four airports: Los Angeles International, Palmdale, Van Nuys and Ontario.

The charter currently directs all airport revenues into one airport revenue fund. Facility-based financial management permitted by Charter Amendment 8 makes sense for the individual airports and for the department as a whole.