A committee of the Danbury City Council continues to work on amendments to the ordinance about pensions for non-union employees.  The committee was formed in January and will be meeting at least once more.  They gathered on Monday night to talk about what changes are being recommended.  The group is also tasked with coming up with a separate ordinance for people hired after a certain date for entry into a deferred contribution plan.  Mayor Mark Boughton says these changes would provide a more secure and balanced future retirement planning for the City.

He suggests a mechanism for employees to opt-out of the current defined benefit plan.  Boughton says the fewer people in the system down the road will reduce the administrative costs among other expenses.  He says that also gives employees the ability to control the destiny of their own retirement and how they structure it.

Boughton says he wants some of the complexity in the system to be reduced.  He notes that there are sections in the ordinance that no longer exist.  The eligible retirement age in Danbury for non-union civil servants is reached by the so-called rule of 85.  It's an addition of the employee's age and the number of years they have worked. 

Over the years though some employees have pointed out other parts of the ordinance which weren't clear.  Some people retired at age 54 and there was a question of if they could do that.  In trying to be a good employer, Boughton says the City agreed to various terms that were never clear and end up setting a precedent.