Pension stampede

Louisville Police Chief Steve Conrad said nearly 100 officers left LMPD this year. Sixty-three of those, he said, are officers who retired because of Kentucky’s looming pension reform, prompting him to try to recruit more officers.“I’m having to manage with what I have … all told, we’ve had 98 people leave already and we’ve got seven more months of this fiscal year to deal with,” Conrad said at his Dec. 6 year-end address to a Metro Council committee. “What is so frustrating is we’ve lost a number of great police officers to fear over the retirement, and nothing has happened yet.”The plan proposed by Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin includes a mandate for officers (and all state employees) to contribute 3 percent of their pay toward a retirement health program, as well as a suspension of pension benefits for retirees who return to public service full-time.