Submitted By: William E. Sexton, City Attorney
Presentation By: William Sexton
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Department: City Attorney
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FORMAL TITLE:
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Ordinance 2027-8 amending and revising Section 43-27(k) to provide that participants in the City of Ocala Firefighters Retirement Plan may participate in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) plan for a period not to exceed 96 months
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OCALA’S RELEVANT STRATEGIC GOALS:
Choose an item., Engaged Workforce
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PROOF OF PUBLICATION:
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BACKGROUND:
The City of Ocala, Florida, like many other employers, both within the public and private sectors, encountered a workforce dominated by long-term, higher-earning employees – including firefighters – and like many other, similarly-situated employers, the City of Ocala determined that it was in its best interest to provide an incentive for said long-term employees to retire.
As a result, the City of Ocala, Florida developed a deferred retirement option plan (DROP) which provided that incentive by allowing firefighters who met specified criteria to elect to retire but to continue to work for an additional 60 months during which time the City of Ocala placed that employees’ retirement benefit into a separate DROP account which will become available to the employee upon the conclusion of the DROP period and said DROP retirement benefit for City of Ocala firefighters was codified at Section 43-27, Code of Ordinances, City of Ocala, Florida.
Now, the City of Ocala, Florida – again, like many other employers now faces an unprecedented employment concern with regard to recruiting and retaining qualified firefighters and in order to maintain a robust and effective fire department, the City of Ocala, Florida has explored numerous options for recruiting and retaining qualified firefighters including extending the period of time that current firefighters who have elected to enter the deferred retirement option plan (DROP) can remain employed by the City of Ocala, Florida while r...
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