Pension reform on March ballot

The City Council voted 13-0 to ask voters to scale back the retirement pay of L.A. cops and firefighters - but only for future hires. Under the ballot measure, which still has to be drafted, sworn personnel with 20 years of service would be entitled to a pension equivalent to 40 percent of their average salary over their last two years of employment. Even if voters sign off on the plan, it's only a very small step in the right direction. The problems in the city pension program center on folks already in the system

Separately, a proposal that would have asked voters to give the council more authority over the DWP retirement system was dropped after hundreds of the utility's workers showed up to protest the move. "They're not moving our pension under council control," said Brian D'Arcy, the powerful head of the DWP employee union. "They did a pretty remarkable job of screwing the other two up."(LAT)