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By this time we should all be familiar with the stories about highly paid, sometimes excessively so, public officials retiring with multiple six figure pensions for life. Some of these officials are holders of elective public office, and some – like the poster child of pay and pension abuse Robert Rizzo, the City Manager of the City of Bell – appear to have manipulated the system to inflate their earnings and thus the base upon which their retirement is calculated.
These abuses have produced calls for complete overhauls of public pension systems to prevent such things from happening in the future, and have also raised the question of whether something can be done to curtail the abuses that are already in place. Now comes a Los Angeles Times story on August 8 headlined “State pension agency slashes benefits for top-paid officials.” A photo accompanying this story shows none other than Mr. Rizzo.
According to this story the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has been quietly reviewing the retirement benefits of “scores of top-paid local government officials” and found that in 329 of the 2250 cases reviewed to date that granted retirement benefits need to be cut. Not only is Mr. Rizzo one of those cases, slated to have his retirement cut from $650,000 per year to $ 50,000 per year according to this Times story, but also slated for a cut is a former general manager of Orange County’s Serrano Water District. And, the municipal poster child of those decrying the cost of government pensions – the City of Vallejo – was found to have granted too high a pension benefit to its retired City Manager. That person is to see his retirement cut from $305,482 per year to a still comfortable $ 216,000 per year according to this story.
CalPERS is finding that some municipalities are reporting inaccurate and inflated earnings, thus driving up retirement benefits. In at least one case – a paid Doctor with the State Department of Social Services – it was discovered that he was not technically a State employee and thus there was no entitlement to any State retirement at all.
It is refreshing to see CalPERS plunging in to review these highly paid public sector employees who are receiving large retirement incomes. This shows that abuses can be identified and reversed (even though some who are receiving these cuts may challenge the process in court). Let’s hope this is just the start of a process to clean house, and assure that not one dime is paid out of public sector retirement systems that is not legally justified.
Hey, how about a post on the County CEO giving his pals huge salary increases and executive jobs with proper documentation? The local blogosphere hasn’t said much about Mauk running the HR department like his own little plantation.
Tony, I think you just did an excellent job of capsulizing it all, exept I think you mean “without documentation”. The Regisrter reported the Board was going to take up this topic this past Tuesday based upon an in depth analysis by two of the Supervisors but I have not heard what happened, if anything. If you know, please enlighten us! I can tell you that having the Personnel (HR) Department under the wing of the CEO has always been cotntroversial, for it gives him/her control over both budget and personnel meaning that the so called department heads have little to no control over these two essential resources to run any organization. Try that in the private sector! However, putting it under the elected Supervisors is no better assurance that game playing and rewarding cronies would not happen, perhaps even worse.
Yep. “Without” proper documentation. All I heard is that the BOS basically endorsed all of the auditor’s findings and recommendations. I haven’t watched the video but it sounded like a real beat down. Now the big question is whether the Board will stick to its guns or just let the momentum fade.
What about disgraced ex-Sheriff, Convict and current occupant of a federal prison cell in Colorado, Mike Carona?! If I remember correctly I believe this turd is still being paid something like $400k/year.
It’s $220 K and its going his old lady while he’s in the can. Word on the street is that he just got an on the job disability approved. Ca-ching!