Protecting our public employee pensions

As Mayor, I’ll make sure the current decision-making structure and protections to ensure our public employee pensions continue to be well-managed will not change. Any changes to DC’s pension investment rules require the DC Council to change the law. 

I strongly support ensuring our public employee pensions are well funded and managed prudently. Our pension funds are currently in a very strong financial situation and we should make sure we continue that, because people worked hard for their pensions and deserve them. No one should mess with a worker’s retirement security. 

I recently shared that we are well-positioned to attract new private sector investment, as DC becomes a more union-friendly place to do business. I want to create a DC where public and private pension funds will want to invest. In fact, the Wharf’s new owner is The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), a Canadian pension fund. The Stacks, a development at Buzzard Point, was built utilizing capital from the National Electrical Benefit Fund of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a DC-headquartered labor union with more than 800,000 members and more than 10,000 in the DC region. We could also see more investment from entities like the AFL-CIO’s Housing Investment Trust and Building Investment Trust.

Right now, DC’s pension funds have more restrictions on their investments than other states. Decision-making structures should not change. I will work with the DC Retirement Board to see how they can review public pension investment in DC. Pension investment decisions should always be made based on fiduciary responsibility to its members, to make sure our public service employees’ retirements are protected.