City-Administered Pension Plans · Pension Modeling
General plan vs. Police & Fire plan: two pension realities
The City of Gainesville does not participate in the Florida Retirement System for these groups. It administers two local defined-benefit plans. The General Employees' Pension Plan (general workforce) and Police & Fire plan (sworn police officers and certified career firefighters/medics) carry materially different employer rates. Total-compensation comparisons are meaningless without isolating which structure applies to each classification.
General Employees' Pension Plan (Defined Benefit)
24%
Employer contribution as % of payroll (illustrative political-subdivision rate)
Local defined-benefit plan for general (non-sworn) employees, with a defined-contribution option for eligible hires. Employer contribution is actuarially determined; member contribution set by plan ordinance. ATU-represented RTS employees and CWA-represented general employees participate here unless a bargaining agreement provides otherwise. Reconciled to the City's most recent actuarial valuation at award.
Consolidated Police Officers' & Firefighters' Retirement Plan (Defined Benefit)
42%
Employer contribution as % of payroll (illustrative political-subdivision rate)
Local defined-benefit plan for sworn police officers and certified firefighters, funded in part by Chapter 175 (fire) and Chapter 185 (police) insurance premium tax revenue. Higher multiplier and earlier normal retirement than the general plan; FLSA overtime treatment (including the 7(k) work-period exemption) interacts with pensionable-earnings definitions and is analyzed in the study.
Vesting and member cost
Both plans are local defined-benefit plans administered by the City rather than by the State. Member contribution rates, vesting schedules, multipliers and normal-retirement eligibility are set by City ordinance and the plans' governing documents, and differ between the General Employees' plan and the Consolidated Police & Fire plan. We pull the operative figures from the City's actuarial valuations at engagement award rather than assuming a statewide schedule, because a local plan's terms are not inferable from any state formula.
Why this matters for Gainesville's pay structure
A pay-grade structure that ignores the General vs. Police & Fire plan split will systematically misprice public-safety against general positions. Sworn police officers and certified career firefighters and medics sit in the Consolidated plan at the higher employer rate, funded in part by Chapter 175 (fire) and Chapter 185 (police) insurance premium tax revenue, while general staff sit in the General Employees' plan. Our pay-structure design isolates pension overhead from base recommendations so the City sees true peer pay before employer pension cost. Employer-paid life and disability coverage is inventoried from the City's own benefit schedule at engagement award.
Employer rates illustrative pending production data at engagement award. Because both plans are City-administered rather than statewide, member rates and multipliers are set locally and are taken from the plans' governing documents rather than from a state statute. Production figures reconciled against the City's actuarial valuations and adopted budget personnel schedule at engagement award.