New York, NY – Members of Local 1182, the Traffic Enforcement Agents union, gathered on Thursday, April 10th, at Traffic Enforcement Command 109 in Queens, to hear about their new annuity plan. The plan is the first for the union, signed with Mayor de Blasio on March 10th, 2016. Under the leadership of Local 1182 President Syed Rahim, the members will now have a retirement fund of one dollar each working day, wholly contributed by the city, with no deductions from the members’ accounts.
Rahim addressed the crowd, who had each received a booklet and other documents with details about the plan and instructions. “This is the first time Level I and Level II have received this,” he said. “I got this annuity from Mayor de Blasio. This money is coming from the city directly. You already have an account.”
Stephen J. Mogila of Pitta, LLP, then addressed the members. He had spoken to an even larger gathering in April, at the Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown Manhattan. He said at that time, “It wasn’t easy, the City didn’t make it easy.” “Syed Rahim felt that there was a retirement crisis,” and so fought hard, he told the crowd. Mogila explained that members can have input into their personal investments, and name a beneficiary, all online, at www.principal.com. Principal, the company, is the record keeper for the plan, “one of the largest in the country,” he said. He encouraged all the members to go online and put a beneficiary on their account. He also spoke about how the money is currently invested, in a Qualified Default Investment Option. The member’s age and date of retirement are factored into whether the investments will be more aggressive or conservative. “If you have longer to retire, you have more aggressive investments, which then become more conservative as you get older,” he said. However, he said, if a member wants to invest on his or her own, there are fifteen other options to choose from, from the most conservative to the most aggressive. There is even a guaranteed investment that currently pays 1.1%. “So for everybody in this room, even if you do absolutely nothing, your money will still be working for you,” he added.
“It’s a landmark event to get this city to contribute one dollar,” said Mogila. The same presentation will be given to 22 command centers in all the five boroughs, to approximately 3,000 people.
Both he and Rahim told the workers that in January, at the next negotiation, they will ask that the city contribution is increased to four or five dollars.
