Proposition A to Restore Retiree Benefits

The campaign behind the Retiree Supplemental Cost of Living Adjustment Charter Amendment is pleased to announce it will be Proposition A on the ballot November 8.

The ballot designation follows a slew of endorsements for the measure. Supporters now include the San Francisco Labor Council, the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, the California Alliance for Retired Americans, the Grey Panthers and the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, among others.

In July, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to place on the November ballot a Charter Amendment designed to right a wrong and help struggling seniors.

Because of changes to the San Francisco City Charter more than a decade ago, approximately 4,500 city retirees have had their pensions unfairly compromised. These changes stripped away their supplemental Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), and forced many to live on pensions of as little as $22,000 a year.

The Charter Amendment will restore the supplemental COLA benefit payments to members of the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System who retired before November 6, 1996.

“Prop A will make a real difference in peoples’ lives,” said Fred Sanchez, co-chair of the campaign to restore retiree benefits. “This is about fairness for some of our most vulnerable citizens.”