Power, politics and process: Ronen resignation heightens retirement-benefits battle

A political power struggle in San Francisco City Hall escalated Tuesday when Supervisor Hillary Ronen abruptly resigned from her position as chair of the board’s Rules Committee.

Ronen accused Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin of “undermining the credibility” of the board by scheduling special meetings to overturn the Rules Committee’s Monday decision to effectively block a charter amendment from appearing on the November ballot.

Her announcement came as the Board of Supervisors debates several measures proposed for the November ballot, including two that would sweeten the retirement benefits of city police officers and firefighters.

On Monday, Ronen and Supervisor Shamann Walton stalled a proposed charter amendment that would offer current police officers incentives to delay their retirements, effectively ensuring it wouldn’t reach the full board for a vote in time to land on the November ballot.

She also watered down a proposal to significantly improve the retirement benefits offered to city firefighters.

In both cases, Ronen questioned their fiscal prudence given The City just closed a $780 million two-year budget deficit that is expected to only continue to grow in the coming years.

In her resignation letter addressed to Peskin on Tuesday, Ronen pointed to politics as an underlying motivation and described her role as protecting “the public from politicized legislation that does not serve the public interest.”

“Ironically, at the beginning of this year, you appointed me as Rules Committee Chair to replace Supervisor [Matt] Dorsey because you said you needed an experienced leader to oversee the Charter Amendment process,” Ronen said.

Dorsey and Peskin didn’t give up on the police-retirement measure, which they sponsored. According to Ronen’s resignation letter, Peskin and Dorsey “are going to extraordinary lengths to propose multiple special meetings and to waive every Board rule and procedural protection in place to overturn the majority ruling made by the Rules Committee.”

“By doing so you are undermining the credibility of the institution of the Board, rendering advice from the Clerk’s office meaningless, and reducing the role of the Committee Chair to merely a symbolic post,” Ronen wrote.

Peskin announced during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting that a supermajority of the Board of Supervisors had agreed to hold two special meetings next week so the board can waive the rules that govern the charter-amendment process, then advance the police-retirement measure to the November ballot.

The meetings will be held on Tuesday at 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.

“I respect their position,” Peskin said of the Rules Committee, “but I also respect the majority will of this Board of Supervisors.”

Dorsey and Peskin’s measure would reinstate the police department’s voluntary Deferred Retirement Option Program. An officer who opts into the DROP program would continue to receive both salary and retirement pay, though the latter would be deposited and set aside until the officer finally retires.

The proponents of the charter amendment contend DROP is an important way to keep an already depleted department afloat while it tries to improve recruitment of younger officers. But Ronen countered that The City had abandoned its previous DROP program because it was unclear if it achieved its purpose, despite the increased costs.

The firefighters’ retirement adjustments — authored by Supervisor Catherine Stefani — proposed lowering the retirement age for firefighters from 58 to 55. It would also change the way firefighters’ retirement pay is calculated. Currently based on the average of the firefighter’s final three years of service, the pay would change to being based on the firefighter’s final year.

The price tag of the package was estimated to be $5.5 million per year for 15 to 20 years. Ronen amended the proposal to remove the adjustment to how pay is calculated, significantly reducing its costs.

Ronen’s letter laid bare the political calculations that supervisors are wrestling with as an election approaches.

Neither the firefighters union nor the police officers union has signaled what they might do in the race for mayor — in which both Peskin and Supervisor Ahsha Safai are candidates — but both have coveted endorsements to offer.

Of the four sponsors listed on the firefighters charter amendment, all are running for reelection or are seeking higher office — Safai, Stefani, Connie Chan and Myrna Melgar.

As for the police-retirement proposal, five of its seven sponsors are running for office — all four who back the firefighters measure, along with Peskin. Dorsey, who has made increasing police staffing a top priority , and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman are the only two sponsors not actively running for office.