San Diego City Firefighters v. Board of Administration of San Diego City Employees' Retirement System

This lawsuit involves two facets of the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (the SDCERS) that defendant and respondent City of San Diego (City) 1 retroactively repealed after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a compliance statement under its Voluntary Correction Program identifying certain aspects of the SDCERS as noncompliant with section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code ( 26 U.S.C. § 401 (a)), which sets forth requirements for qualified retirement plans. 2

Plaintiff and appellant San Diego City Firefighters, Local 145, IAFF, AFL-CIO (Local 145), a union, and individual plaintiffs and appellants *600 Michael Ditomaso, Leslie Gallo, Adolfo Gonzales, Timothy Harris, Glen Mackie, Jon McDonald, Matthew Praizner, Don Rock and Steve Willcuts (Firefighter Plaintiffs), a group of City firefighters and Local 145 members impacted by City’s repeal of the SDCERS program that allowed them to convert their annual leave to service credit for the purpose of calculating retirement benefits, asserted claims against City and defendant and respondent the Board of Administration of the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (the SDCERS Board), including for breach of…