City Council members voted unanimously at their meeting Monday, April 3, for a pension plan upgrade that would lower the retirement age for a portion of City of Cape Girardeau employees.

Jailers and communicators will be reclassified from general employees to the Public Safety Department in the municipality's pension plan — Missouri Local Government Employees Retirement System (LAGERS). The reclassification lowers their potential retirement age from 60 to 55, putting them on the same level as police officers.

The move requires a one-time payment of $125,000 with an estimated annual cost of $13,000 a year. Council members voted last fall to allocate a portion of the city's American Rescue Plan Act funds to cover the one-time fee.

The retirement upgrade is expected to be a recruitment and retention method. The Cape Girardeau Police Department has been significantly short-handed on jailers since the pandemic. Police Chief Wes Blair said in a March presentation before the council that the department had nine open jailer positions out of 12. He added they had three communicator slots unfilled.

A lack of jailers has forced the department to pull officers off of patrol to do routine checks of the municipal jail and has prevented the department from being able to house federal prisoners, eliminating a revenue source. The department would need eight to 10 jailers to house those prisoners.

Police department officials have also cited pay as cause for the shortage. Currently, the city's jailer position pays $1 less per hour than Cape Girardeau County.

In September, council members voted unanimously for a systemwide upgrade of the municipality's LAGERS plan to the highest tier — L-6. At the time, city officials and council members touted the move as one that helps with job recruitment and honors current employees.