Nearly 300 retired City of Houston employees remained unpaid months after accepting early-retirement packages intended to reduce municipal spending, city officials and pension trustees said Wednesday, prompting angry residents to demand answers at a council meeting.
More than 1,000 city workers accepted the May buyout offers, a volume city and pension officials say far exceeded normal retirement activity and created an unprecedented processing challenge for the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System (HMEPS). Retirees were initially told they would receive pension payments within 30 to 60 days, but many remain without funds as the city and HMEPS scramble to resolve paperwork and timing issues.
At a city council session Sept. 10, Mayor John Whitmire pushed back against criticism that the city controlled HMEPS, saying the municipal government does not direct the pension fund's operations. "I have no control over the pension fund," Whitmire said, according to local television station KHOU. He said city officials had provided data to local outlets and criticized what he called selective reporting by some critics.
Sherry Mose, chair of the HMEPS board, said the spike in retirements — compared with the system's average of about 39 retirements a month — overwhelmed normal processing routines. Mose told KHOU the delays were caused by timing bottlenecks and incomplete paperwork from some retirees, including missing birth certificates and marriage licenses. She said the pension office had hired additional staff and instituted overtime to clear the backlog and had logged more than 13,000 calls related to the missing payments.
"My board members, everyone’s been working on this. It’s not being placed on the back burner," Mose said. She told reporters that all outstanding payments should be issued by the end of September.
Several retirees described mounting financial strain while they waited. Kathy Caldwell, a former City of Houston employee, told ABC13 she regretted accepting the retirement package after bills accumulated and expected pension checks did not arrive. "I strongly regret retiring," she said. "I need my money."
Residents packed the council chambers and reportedly waited in long lines to speak, reflecting broader frustration in some of the city’s predominantly Democratic neighborhoods where municipal workers are a significant constituency. The situation has opened political scrutiny of how the buyout program was executed and how future workforce reductions might be handled.
HMEPS is a government-run defined-benefit plan that provides disability, retirement and survivor benefits for city employees and pension system staff. The fund serves more than 25,000 participants, according to its website. Officials have emphasized that normal administrative procedures for processing a large number of retirements typically stretch beyond the timelines retirees were initially given and that extra verification steps are required to protect benefits from fraud or miscalculation.
The buyout program was designed to trim city payroll costs as officials sought ways to tighten budgets. City and pension officials have offered to help retirees complete outstanding paperwork and urged those with questions to contact HMEPS directly. Mayor Whitmire and HMEPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOX Business.
As the board and pension staff continue to process claims, the outcome will be closely watched by other cities considering similar engagement with municipal workforces. For the affected retirees, the pressing concern remains receipt of promised benefits to cover living costs and medical expenses while they await final payments.