PBA Undefeated In the Lawsuit Over Atlanta Pension Funds

By Valerie M. Ponder

SSPBA Legal Services

The Court of Appeals of Georgia recently upheld the decision of the Fulton County Superior Court that determined that the City of Atlanta pension boards have exclusive authority to hire a third party administrator to handle pension benefit payments and to obtain legal advice from independent legal counsel without first consulting and getting the approval of the City of Atlanta Department of Law. At issue were the Police Officers Pension Fund and Fire Fighters Pension Fund. Specifically, the Court of Appeals stated, “based on the plain language of the pension statutes and the Atlanta City Charter, we conclude that the pension boards…have authority to hire a third party administrator without interference form the City of Atlanta.”  With regard to the assistance of outside legal counsel the Court said that the statutory language pertaining to the City of Atlanta pension funds does not “impose a duty upon the respective pension boards to obtain approval from the City Legal Department before hiring or consulting with outside counsel.”

The PBA became involved in this lawsuit because its members were concerned about corruption and inefficiency in the way the city handled the police pension fund.  The PBA wanted to protect the interests of the many Atlanta police officers whose retirement pensions are directly affected by the daily operations of the Police Pension Fund.  The PBA filed this lawsuit through local attorneys Norman Slawsky and Mary Carole Cooney, who have expertise in pension law; they were assisted by PBA Staff Attorney Grady K. Dukes.  Despite PBA’s success in the trial court and Court of Appeals, the City of Atlanta made application for a discretionary appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia.   On May 8, 2006, the Supreme Court of Georgia declined to hear the City of Atlanta’s appeal, thereby rendering PBA’s efforts on behalf of the many Atlanta police officers undefeated.  As a direct result of this litigation, the pension funds at issue are now being administered by a private party instead of the City of Atlanta.