Los Angeles Police Protective League v. Bd. of Fire and Police Pension Commissioners CA2/4

INTRODUCTION

The appeal concerns a dispute between labor organizations representing Los Angeles firefighters and police officers, on the one hand, and the City of Los Angeles (City) and a pension board, on the other. In 2011, the Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance freezing certain retirement benefits for firefighters and police officers at then current levels. In response, the City and labor organizations entered into letters of agreement (LOAs) that gave active firefighters and police officers the right to voluntarily contribute 2 percent of their base salaries to the Fire and Police Pension Plan (Plan) in exchange for a vested right to the retiree health benefit in effect as of the effective date of the LOAs “and thereafter the maximum amount of each annual increase authorized by the [Los Angeles Administrative Code].” Shortly after the LOAs were entered into, a dispute about their meaning arose between the labor organizations and the City: The labor organizations asserted that the LOAs required the board administering the pension funds to increase the retirement benefits by the maximum amount permitted each year, while the City asserted that such increases were…