Tom Bonner says he's not living the high life, despite a $150,000 annual pension he began receiving when he retired in June 2002 as Taylor's police chief.

His ex-wife got almost half of his pension in a divorce settlement, he says. Today, he still lives in Taylor, in a condominium he says is worth $100,000.

Bonner says his retirement is not unusual: He plays a lot of golf and travels to Florida and Chicago. At age 58, he's young enough for a second career but says he has no desire for one. Thirty three years of police work -- 16 years as chief -- have left him tired.

When Bonner left, it was under a cloud. He had been sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay $11,500 in restitution for his son's unauthorized use of Bonner's Downriver Community Conference cell phone. Bonner pleaded no contest to felony larceny by conversion. He was making $88,000 a year.

He added, "Police work is sometimes hard, sometimes easy. You work holidays, times when other people don't. I've been shot -- during a drug raid in 1983 on my son's 11th birthday. I was in the hospital. That's one of the hazards."

Pitoniak doesn't begrudge Bonner his pension. Under city rules, he earned it. But bringing future costs under control, he said, is a struggle and a necessity.

The city's 20 largest police and fire annual pensions range from $67,200 to Bonner's $150,000, according to the Taylor Police and Fire Retirement Board. One police corporal received a $92,769 annual pension. Two retired fire chiefs received pensions of $85,500 and $84,800.

To calculate pensions, police employees hired before 1990 use their highest three years' salary, plus overtime pay, cost of living increases, vacation, holiday and sick time pay, as well as longevity pay.

The pensions of command officers hired after 1990 are based on only their final base wages. Bonner was able to include his overtime over most of his 33 years, a practice that was stopped during his last year on the job as chief.

Taylor police and fire employees do not pay into the Social Security system or receive its benefits. Police officers contribute 5 percent of their pay to their pension plan.

After he was elected in 1997, Pitoniak changed some city pensions from traditional -- called defined benefit plans -- to defined contribution plans similar to the 401(k) programs often used in private businesses.

In a defined contribution plan, the employee and employer contribute to an investment fund, but there is no guaranteed pension amount when the employee retires.

The change was spurred by public outrage in 1997 after a Free Press report revealed how elected City Council members could receive substantial pensions by moving into full-time appointed city jobs. They were allowed to count their years as part-time council members toward their pensions.

Former Mayor Cameron Priebe retired in 1997 at age 46 with a $42,000-a-year pension, plus health benefits for life. Priebe worked 27 years for the city as mayor and as a police officer and part-time councilman.

Priebe then took a job with Wayne County at a salary topping $106,000 a year. He entered the county's 401(k) plan, in which the county pays $5 for every $1 Priebe contributes.

In late 1997, the Taylor City Council did away with pensions for council members. And elected officials can no longer automatically get the same benefits as unionized management employees.

Still, some people eligible under the old plan have cashed in. In 2003, City Clerk Dorothy West retired at age 75 with a $126,000-a-year pension -- almost twice her city clerk salary of $65,170.

Police and fire department pensions remain a concern, Pitoniak said. The formula for police and fire pensions was sweetened this year. The multiplier used to calculate pensions based on wages and years of serves was increased, from 2.5 percent to 2.8 percent. The increase could mean several thousand dollars a year more for a retired police officer.

This year, Taylor's property tax for police and fire pensions was increased by nearly 1.5 mills. Pitoniak said reining in pensions is a long-term challenge.

Defined contribution pension: 5 percent of salary credited each year to pension account, which yields interest. Retiree draws from accumulated account.

All the communities have pension systems governed by Public Act 345, a state law that allows communities to raise millages to cover pension costs through a majority vote of the city council or township board.

Communities not covered under Act 345 must cover unexpected costs from their general funds. One example is Waterford, where this year, police and fire pensions used $600,000 more from the general budget than in 2003. Pension costs now account for 27.3 percent of Waterford's police and fire budget.

* Taylor, on July, 1 by 1.48 mills. (The city's total millage rate is 21.58.) In recent years, changes to the pension formula produced larger pensions for police officers. Six years ago, officers negotiated a 20-and-out provision, rather than the customary 25-and-out.

* St. Clair Shores, which increased the city's taxes by 0.5 mill in order to pay $876,000 into the pension fund -- the first time in six years that the city has had to subsidize the pension fund because its investments fell short.

* Trenton, where taxes rose by 0.3 mill this year, as the city had to pay nearly $1.2 million into its pension fund -- 24 percent of the payroll for police and fire operations.

One mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of taxable value (up to 50 percent of market value) on a home. So one mill could cost the owner of a $200,000 home as much as $100 a year.

The Free Press surveyed the employee retirement plans of 21 southeast Michigan municipalities, the State of Michigan and Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. More than 20 Freedom of Information Act requests were submitted over the past year.

Four local pension boards refused to divulge the names, job descriptions and benefit payments of pension recipients. Westland, Taylor, Southfield and Ann Arbor all cited privacy concerns. The City of Detroit refused the same information, after the Free Press began court action against the others.

The Taylor Police and Fire Retirement Board offered the ranks of retired officers and their pension payments, but no names. The board billed the Free Press for copying fees, based on time spent by what the city said it pays its lowest-wage clerk -- $35 an hour.

The Free Press sued all four cities. On Oct. 15, Wayne County Circuit Judge Warfield Moore ordered the four to turn over the information. The Free Press also is seeking $18,266 in attorney fees from the cities.

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