Pension reform committee ready to save Atlanta
The city’s Pension Review Panel has now been named
As a mayoral candidate, Kasim Reed regularly blamed pension obligations for bleeding Atlanta dry. During his inaugural address, he was blunt:
The stark reality is that one out of every five tax dollars is currently going to fund a pension system that is strangling our city. We need to face this challenge head on, being mindful of the responsibility to taxpayers who fund that pension system, without breaking the faith with the public servants who have dedicated their lives to Atlanta.
Well, the Pension Review Panel has now been named. Its first meeting is scheduled for Feb. 22.
Who are these solons, these brave, private-sector volunteers tasked with saving the city budget from death by annuity? The chairman, former AJC publisher John Mellott, was named weeks ago, but here’s the rest of the list:
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- Jim Wells, Chairman and CEO of SunTrust Banks
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- Ed Hays, Deputy Managing Partner for Deloitte & Touche
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- Ben Johnson, retired managing partner of Alston & Bird
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- Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines
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- Carol Tome, CFO of Home Depot
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- Calvin Vismale, an investment consultant
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- Rod Edmond, an attorney who also chairs the police Citizen Review Board
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- Dan Kolber, partner in the law firm Baker Donelson, who oversaw the recent restructuring of the Grady Health System