COLORADO SPRINGSThe Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association wants a court to take control of $259 million in proceeds the city of Colorado Springs is poised to receive from the voter-approved lease of Memorial Health System.
PERA filed a lawsuit Friday against the city and other parties involved in the Memorial lease transaction.
The lawsuit, filed in Adams County, is in response to a lawsuit filed last month by the city against PERA. The city contends it doesn’t owe the pension plan anything since Memorial’s employees are no longer part of the system.
But PERA argues that the city is on the hook.
If an employer leaves PERA without providing enough money to cover the retirements already earned by its employees, those costs shift to other employers in the plan, including the city and Colorado Springs Utilities, Gregory W. Smith, PERA’s interim executive director, said in a statement Tuesday.
PERA argued in its lawsuit that the city’s move would be “equivalent to ‘firing’ all 4,000 of Memorial’s employees…imperiling the very existence of PERA.”
More information about the suit can be found at:
