The war of words between Minneapolis officials and a pension fund escalated this week when a city official questioned what he portrayed as a surreptitious financial shift between two police pension-oriented bodies, and the city pressed a judge for a repayment plan on what she ruled are overpaid police and fire pensions.

It's is the latest fallout from a long-running dispute between the city and closed pension funds for police and firefighters. The city last year won a rollback of pensions paid to those pensioners, after a judge agreed with the city that the funds improperly included some elements of compensation in setting pensions.

Hennepin County District Judge Janet Poston also ordered this year that both funds devise a plan to collect from members amounts that she ruled were overpayments.

Poston has scheduled a Nov. 12 hearing on the city's latest request that she order the funds to meet the specifics of her earlier order for repayment plans. The city isn't seeking repayment while the funds appeal her rulings.

Larry Ward, president of the Minneapolis Police Relief Association, said he thought the funds had satisfied the judge's request and that the city was trying to disrupt the fund's preparation of its appeal.

Meanwhile, the city's chief financial officer, Patrick Born, sent Ward a letter questioning a $400,000 shift from the fund's dues-paid political fund to the legal fund of the Minneapolis Retired Police Officers Association, a social and lobbying group of retired police.

Born claimed that the shift was made without adequate notice to two city representatives on the board of the largely city-funded pension fund. He also said the purpose wasn't adequately explained in board minutes, and the retired officers group is outside the scrutiny of the open meeting law or state audits.

Ward responded that city representatives were notified of the board's special meeting, and one even responded. Bob Nelson, president of the retired officers group, said the $400,000 will be used for the costs of a legal brief supporting the appeal by pension funds.

The city said it had paid $453,880 as of mid-August for attorneys' fees, expenses and actuarial services in connection with its lawsuit. According to city officials, the police fund said that it had spent $573,957 as of May 11 to defend that lawsuit, with city pension contributions helping finance that. The City Council's budget committee will get a briefing on 2011 pension costs at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Meanwhile, the city was forced to switch who it is bringing on as its outside legal firepower for the appellate process. Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson was unable to work for the city, as it wanted, because he signed an order denying Supreme Court review of an earlier appeal in the case. Cliff Greene has been retained instead.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438