Peachtree City

now has another tool to recruit and keep police officers and firefighters:

a public safety retirement program.

The plan, adopted

penalty because of the physical demand their jobs entail. To qualify,

the employees must have at least 10 years of service with the city.

Normally, employees

can't qualify for full retirement benefits until they reach the age of

65.

The estimated

cost of the public safety retirement program is just over $221,000. That

number does not include a provision for the city to pay some or all of

the retiree's medical coverage based on a sliding scale that factors in

length of service.

The city would

pay 25 percent of the premium for retirees with 10 years of service, jumping

to 50 percent for those with 15 years and 75 percent for those with 20

years. Employees with 25 years of service would have their full insurance

premium paid by the city.

The city currently

uses a self-insurance program where it must pay the first $40,000 in medical

payments for each covered individual. That runs the total estimated cost

for the program to about $300,000, according to finance director Paul

Salvatore.

Salvatore recommended

that the city could fund the cost with the increase in tax revenues from

insurance premiums, which amounted to an extra $300,000 this year that

was unbudgeted due to the increase in the city's population via the 2000

Census.

A number of

police officers and firefighters were present at the council meeting and

broke into applause after council voted to approve the special retirement

plan.

The matter

has been studied for quite a while, and last year council put $100,000

seed money in the budget to implement the program.

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