Temporary Step To Keep Pension Fund Afloat

Action is being taken to try to make sure retired Prichard workers still get their pensions.
The pension board chairman says it's a step, not a permanent solution.
Wednesday afternoon, the board agreed to move the pension fund money out of the equities market, which Pension Board Chairman Troy Ephraim said, "is subject to the volatility of the stock market and the economy, obviously being at a tumultuous time right now, is causing a loss in those funds."
So instead of continuing to lose money, the board wants to move the pension fund to a money market account where it won't make much interest, but it won't suffer losses.
Retired workers had mixed reactions.
Retired Firefighter C. W. Currie said, "I think its going to be a step to help us, I believe."
T.C. James, a retired Prichard Police Officer, said, "What this all comes down to (is) they're wanting to cut our pensions again."
And that is a possibility.
Ephraim said the pension fund could run out of money by July so the next job is to, in his words, "figure out what steps need to be done by way of the city looking at perhaps maybe doing a restructuring or re-organization with the bankruptcy plan to see how that would cut off what we're paying out now to the pensioners, to hopefully have it reduced."
But Ephraim said, inevitably, the board will have to find money somewhere to put into the pension fund.
They're still looking for ideas on how to do that.