Councilman vows to continue pension spiking debate

PHOENIX — The fight over pension spiking in the City of Phoenix may not be over, even after the Phoenix City Council changed its mind on a measure that it rejected last week.

The council voted 5-4 on Thursday to approve a plan that supporters say would end pension spiking by city employees by next July.

Not everyone agrees.

“It doesn’t end it by July 2014,” said Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who voted against the plan. “It only talks about the pensionability for car allowance and phone allowance, and that’s pretty much it.”

DiCiccio said that’s not enough.

“If you really wanted to end the spiking, you would stop the deferred compensation spiking, you would stop the vacation and sick leave accruals…some people have over two to three thousand hours when they retire,” he said. “That’s what creates the spiking.”

DiCiccio wants the public to decide the issue.

“There’s already been a citizen’s iniative moving forward. It was filed about a week or so ago,” said DiCiccio. “It’s going to move the City of Phoenix to a 401K plan, just like the private sector. That’s going to stop the pension spiking.”

DiCiccio said it’s a shame that stopping pension spiking has had to come to this.

“It’s obvious that this council can’t do it, and the politicians won’t do it, because they’re beholden to the unions. The citizens are going to have to do this on their own,” DiCiccio remarked.