By Susan Motander
Last month the Monrovia City Council established a plan to cope with the mounting costs of employee pensions administered by the state program: California Public Employees Retirement System, CalPERS. For years the PERS system has regularly overestimated the income from the investments made from the employee and employer contributions. As a result, the retirements are underfunded.
To deal with the underfunding, the state has begun a program of demanding increased contributions. On Nov. 9, the publication in its online edition explained the entirety of the plan laid out by City Manager Oliver Chi. The City Council had voted to approve the plan at its Nov. 7 meeting.
On Tuesday, the council took the additional steps to implementing the plan by setting the date for the election to approve increasing the hotel bed tax from 10 percent to 12 percent. It will be held in conjunction with a statewide election next June.
The council also approved the goals and policies for implementing Community Facilities Districts. These have established the city’s plan to help offset the increased costs associated with additional housing coming into the community.
