Friday, May 29, 2015

[Marin County] Pension group fired up by grand jury report


Marin Citizens push for transparency after findings detail violations


A recent report from the Marin County civil grand jury serves as both redemption and motivation for a local group that has been advocating pension reform in Marin.
The report, which investigated the County of Marin, City of San Rafael, Novato Fire Protection District and the Southern Marin Fire Protection District, found that these employers granted no less than 38 pension enhancements from 2001 to 2006, each of which appears to have violated various elements of the California Government Code.
The Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans (CSPP) responded strongly to the grand jury report.
“The report exposes the self-serving culture of staff who proposed unfunded retirement enhancements that benefited them and that were approved by compliant supervisors in the early 2000’s,” said CSPP member Dick Tait.
The grand jury report states, “One result of these pension enhancements is that they contributed to the increase of the unfunded pension liability of MCERA (Marin County Employees’ Retirement Association); this unfunded liability increased from a surplus of $26.5 million in 2000 to a deficit of $536.8 million in 2013.”
“The findings of this 2015 Grand Jury further emphasize the need for meaningful pension reform in 2016,” said CSPP member Jody Morales. “Previous grand jury reports have been routinely dismissed by Marin County supervisors, while officials continued to run up the tab for Marin’s taxpayers from a surplus of $26.5 million in 2000 to a deficit of $537 million in 2013. This was done without public notice and in violation of government codes. This should not go unaddressed.”
The group feels that the Marin County Board of Supervisors needs to get out of the way if pension reform is to take place.
“The County Board of Supervisors needs to recuse itself from evaluating the report and select an independent citizen committee to further evaluate the grand jury findings,” CSPP member Michael Lotito said. “In particular Supervisor [Steve] Kinsey must not in any way participate in any discussions about the report as he was a board member during the 2001-2006 time frame in question. On information and belief, Supervisor Kinsey may have benefited from the enhancements and was certainly a member of the Board when the actions in question took place, giving rise to an appearance, at least, of a conflict of interest.”
The report is viewed as a positive step forward. David Wren, another CSPP member, said, “The grand jury did a superior job of pointing out how even at the highest levels of county government a lack of transparency and poor judgment can cost taxpayers plenty. It truly underscores the need to investigate all government entities in Marin and also presents an important opportunity to potentially undue illegal contracts. If the grand jury report found that public employees were owed additional compensation due to violations, what would be the outcome? Would these employees just walk away and say ‘It’s OK, let’s fix it going forward?’”
CSPP member David Brown added, “The issue is all about disclosure and the public’s right to know. It is possible the public might have been fine with the enhancements but it never had a voice. The four entities mentioned in the report each need to retain an actuary to assess the financial impact of the questionable assessments. Grand juries in every county ought to perform the same analysis.”
In an email to Marinscope, CSPP wrote, “CSPP’s grievance is not with the rank and file employee of the county. It is with the exorbitant salaries, pensions and benefits being paid to the top few percent of county workers, referred to in the press as the ‘top brass.’ This abuse of the system has led to layoffs of frontline workers and cuts in services to the citizens of Marin.
Vital departments on which many of our residents rely are being shut down due to the shift of funds needed to pay overly generous pensions and post retirement benefits.”
CSPP is surveying more than 130 Marin political leaders and appointees, being asked to respond to the grand jury report, entitled “Pension Enhancements: A Case of Government Code Violations and A Lack of Transparency.”
May 27, 2015
Marinscope Community Newspapers
By Chris Rooney, Marinscope contributor

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