TIFTON — The Tifton city council is looking into modifications to the city’s retirement plans.

During the June 3 city council meeting, City Manager Emily Beeman suggested that the city needed to explore alternative benefits in their retirement plans, feeling that the newer generation of workers would not be interested in pension plans or continue working for the city with the benefits they were currently offering.

Beeman explained that she had been discussing alternative plans with the Georgia Municipal Association and Segal, the city’s actuary, for several months about their best options for new benefits, and that the creation of a defined contribution plan through GMA would be their best course of action.

This plan would create a 5-year vesting period on a 457 plan, with a required 3% contribution from the employee. The city would then match the plan with a 401k for anything above that contribution, for up to 6%.

This change would go into effect for all new employees hired past the effective date of the new plan, which Beeman noted had not been determined. New employees would be educated on the differences between the new plan and the city’s existing defined benefit plan to help them choose the option best suited to them.

Additionally, the defined benefit plan would have its vesting period shortened from ten years to five and gain an in-service distribution for existing employees reaching commencement date regulation. Beeman explained that this would allow those employees to continue working with the city, cash in their benefits, and begin taking advantage of their retirement plan.

Beeman reported that the addition of in-service distribution and the defined contribution plan would be at no cost to the city, but that the vesting period change for the defined benefit plan would cost them around $6,942 a year. However, she noted that with the city’s defined benefit plan on its way to being fully funded by the end of the year, this expense would not be much of an issue.

City council members will discuss the topic further at their upcoming meeting June 17.