After a politically charged comment from Houston Mayor John Whitmire, the record was set on why hundreds of City of Houston retirees haven’t received retirement pay.
HOUSTON — Houston Mayor John Whitmire is firing back at critics of the delayed payout to retired City of Houston employees. KHOU 11 has reported that almost 300 employees who voluntarily took early retirement as part of a cost-cutting program back in May still have not received their money.
The chair of the pension board said those remaining employees will get their checks by the end of September.
The Houston mayor started off Wednesday’s city council discussion by criticizing reports that the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System has not paid out to hundreds of workers.
“I have no control over the pension fund; we’ve explained that repeatedly, provided the data to our daily paper, but that’s not what they want to write, and neither does one of my critics want to show the facts,” Mayor Whitmire said.
Back in May, more than 1,000 employees signed up to take an early retirement as part of a plan to reduce city spending. HMEPS board chair Sherry Mose says historically, they receive an average of 39 retirements per month.
When asked why nearly 300 people reported they have not received their benefits, Mose said it was due to timing, and some retirees didn’t submit the right paperwork.
“[You] can’t have any missing documents, for instance, birth certificates, marriage licenses, everything has to be in order. If that’s done, payments will be sent out the end of September,” Mose told KHOU 11 News.
Mose told the city council her office received over 13,000 calls to HMEPS about the lack of payments. City Council members say some constituents asked them in public about the problem.
Council member Edward Pollard, who criticized the mayor weeks ago for the lack of payments, said during the comment that the city needs to look at the seriousness of what took place.
“If we make a promise to retirees to take a package, that those promises must be kept,” Pollard said.
Mose said HMEPS has brought on additional staff and retirees should be receiving payments by the end of the month.
“Staff has been working overtime, and I can’t tip my hat enough to them….my board members, everyone’s been working on this, it’s not being placed on the back burner,” Mose said.
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