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The pension funds for New York City's firefighters, teachers, police officers and other workers lost $109 million in Enron investments and $25 million in Kmart investments, leading the city comptroller to say yesterday that he was considering a change in how the funds invest.

In recent years the city's pension funds have invested more money in index funds, which generally track whole segments of the stock market, and the city has relied less on money managers to actively monitor investment funds and consider other factors in buying and selling stock. But the comptroller, William C. Thompson, who took office Jan. 1, said the heavy blow delivered by the collapse of Enron and the plummeting stock price of Kmart, which were both companies included in the index funds' investments, was leading him to review that strategy.

Mr. Thompson said that while index funds charge smaller fees than actively managed funds, and many had done well over time, they lacked "aggressive, or active managers, who will say, `Oops, look at this,' and will bail out of a situation if they start looking at it as it deteriorates."

New York State's pension fund system also suffered because of its investments in the two companies. But while the state's pension system, at $112 billion, is larger than the city's $77 billion system, the state lost less money: $58 million on investments in Enron and $17 million on investments in Kmart, according to figures provided by State Comptroller H. Carl McCall's office.

The state sold its remaining Kmart stock on Friday, when shares closed at $1.74 each, said Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for Mr. McCall. The city's funds still hold 1,772,895 shares of Kmart common stock. Kmart filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, and it was priced at 89 cents a share at the end of trading yesterday. Marc Kalech, a spokesman for Mr. Thompson, said the city's pension funds held on to so many Kmart shares because the pension system's index funds held on to the shares. He did not say which funds held the stock.

The S & P 500, one of the most popular indexes, announced last Wednesday that it was dropping Kmart.

On the Enron front, the city is going to court to try to recoup the $109 million its funds lost.

The city joined forces with Florida, whose pension system lost $306 million in Enron investments, and filed papers on Jan. 14 in Federal District Court in Houston seeking to be named the lead plaintiffs in a class action suit against the Enron Corporation and several of its top executives.

Pension funds around the nation lost money in the Enron collapse, and a number of municipalities and investors are seeking to be named lead plaintiff in the suit against Enron. Michael A. Cardozo, the city's corporation counsel, said that in class action securities suits, the investors who could show that they lost the most were usually named the lead plaintiffs. A suit brought jointly by Florida and New York City could claim $415 million in losses.

"Both Florida and the N.Y.C. funds are prepared to commit all of the personnel and resources necessary to adequately manage this litigation," Leslie A. Conason, an assistant corporation counsel, wrote in an affidavit filed with the court.

Mr. Thompson, the city comptroller, said that his office was working with the corporation counsel to bring the suit.

"The fact that people were misled and information was denied, that's the reason that you'd wind up suing," he said. "Based on that situation — that's what made Enron so different from other things, the fact that information wasn't made public, that things were concealed, and that accounting that was done wasn't accurate. That is something that stockholders have a right to."

New York City has five pension funds, for teachers, firefighters, police officers, city employees, and other Board of Education workers. The city comptroller sits on the boards of four of the funds, and serves as investment adviser and custodian to all five. Under the previous comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, the funds increased the use of index funds for buying stock, and during the stock market boom of the late 1990's, the funds prospered, earning more than had been anticipated. But like other investment funds, and many private 401(k) plans, the funds have suffered during the recent recession.

Mr. Thompson said that it was too soon to tell how much more money the city might have to contribute to the funds to offset losses in the market. But he said that he would speak to the trustees of all five funds about the possibility of relying less on indexes and on looking for long-term investments.

"The one thing is that you look at pension systems over an extended period of time — you are a long-term investor," he said. "It is not just what happens today, it is what happens next year, 5 years, 10 years down the road that you're most interested in, and providing stable returns for all the members of the pension system."

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