Court Opinion

ID: 9943789
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-26 14:37:17.712608+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:44:51.456732
License: Public Domain

Under the 1923 ordinance, an employee who is convicted of a felony can be removed from the department and his pension rights terminated. The ordinance under which the present proceeding was instituted, enacted more than 20 years before Wallace retired, merely extended the time of an employee's required good behavior to include the period after his retirement. I find no basis for the conclusion that this change was an unreasonable one.
In my opinion, the test of permissible amendment of a pension system stated by the Chief Justice is entirely too narrow. Certainly the flexibility of a pension system to meet changing conditions and the safeguarding of its proper purposes are important considerations, but I would not rule out the many other reasons of public policy which may well enter into such a determination. I believe that fundamental principles of good government permit the public to establish minimum standards as to the character of the recipients of public funds. Those standards should include the right to insist upon honesty of public officers both in office and after retirement from governmental service.
I would affirm the judgment. *Page 187