NOLA.com
NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Fire Fighters Relief & Pension Fund, a lightning rod for Mayor Mitch Landrieu after he slowed the spigot of city dollars headed to that benefits account, has lost almost half its available cash since the mayor took office in 2010.
And 2013 turned out to be especially calamitous, according to its latest annual audit. The fund dropped more than $40.2 million in soured investments and defaulting loans last year. That fallout, plus draw-downs of retirement and other benefits, left $84.8 million available in December. That’s down 41 percent from the $143.5 million available a year earlier and down 52 percent of the $160.3 million available in 2010.
“We hit something like a perfect storm,” said Tommy Meagher, a firefighter and secretary-treasurer of the pension fund’s board of trustees.
Full story: New Orleans firefighters pension fund lost $40.2 million in 2013, audit shows