After several years, lawmakers and Gov. Jay Nixon have come to an agreement, which will lead to the elimination of the Jefferson City Firefighters Pension Fund.
Earlier this week, Nixon signed a bill allowing local governments to transfer "closed" retirement plans to Lagers, the state's Local Government Employees Retirement System.
The legislation has been discussed for several years, but always stalled, even though local leaders had long been in favor of it.
Jefferson City's Fire Department has been one proponent of the plan. Since February 2011, new hires in the department are automatically enrolled in the Lagers retirement program, but the department also has an older pension plan that still covers retirees and surviving relatives.
The fund's board has always supported the idea of turning the management of the fund over to Lagers, as it removes the need for city staff to make the monthly payments to retirees and survivors.
"The pension board has been seeking to achieve this for quite some time," Fire Chief Matt Schofield said. "We were kind of one of the driving forces, along with Lagers, to get this done."
Schofield said there's about 55 people who still receive payments from the pension fund to be moved into Lagers. He said there is no current timetable for that process to happen, noting staff is waiting for Lagers to give an evaluation.