An independent attorney will be
called in to analyze grand jury disclosures of procedural wrongdoing that kept
the public in the dark about pension hikes.
The move came as County Counsel
Steve Woodside, the county’s top civil lawyer, said he will step aside from the
analysis task following complaints by critics who accused him of conflict of
interest.
County Administrator Matthew
Hymel said an independent legal review will be sought even though Woodside “has
demonstrated throughout his career the highest standards of professionalism and
integrity.”
Hymel, noting Woodside does not
participate in Marin’s pension plan and was not involved “with any of the staff
actions that occurred” 13 years ago, added: “Nonetheless, to address any
perceptions of a conflict of interest, we will be using outside counsel to help
prepare our response to the grand jury report.”
Woodside called the move a
mutual decision.
“Although there is no conflict
here, out of an abundance of caution, I fully support involving outside counsel
to assist the county administrator in responding to the grand jury report,”
Woodside said. “I hold a public office and there are various duties I am
required to perform, and I and my office will continue to do our job consistent
with professional conduct rules and the rules regarding conflict of interest,”
he added in a brief interview at the Civic Center press room Friday.
Woodside is under fire from
Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans and others who noted he gets two
pensions and a county paycheck, and should be ruled out as an analyst of a
grand jury investigation disclosing pension wrongdoing more than a decade ago.
The civil grand jury reported
that officials repeatedly broke the government code by approving retroactive
pension benefits without advance public notice or required fiscal analysis,
ballooning liability for taxpayers and raising questions about the legal
standing of the benefits involved.
Of 107 violations unearthed by
the jury, 92 were attributed to county supervisors. The California Employees
Retirement Law of 1937 governing the Marin system says that before approving
benefit increases, officials — in this case, the Board of Supervisors, San
Rafael City Council, and Novato and Southern Marin fire boards — “shall secure
the services” of an actuary who “shall provide a statement of the actuarial
impact upon future annual costs” which “shall be made public at a public
meeting.” None of this was done.
Jury reports require a
response, and Woodside promptly announced he would direct a legal analysis of
the report. But he told the Independent Journal a legal challenge would be
futile because benefits promised years ago by labor contracts trump procedural
issues.
Critics claimed Woodside had
prejudged the issue, and asserted he had a conflict of interest since he
collects public pensions from Santa Clara and Sonoma counties totaling $177,000
— and served as Sonoma County’s top legal adviser when supervisors there made
similar mistakes hiking pensions without proper notice, actuarial reports or
disclosure of the fiscal tab.
The 66-year-old Woodside, who
earns $256,600 a year in total compensation for serving as top lawyer at the
Civic Center, accepted extra salary instead of a Marin pension, but collects a
$94,800 state CalPERS pension for serving as county counsel in Santa Clara for
24 years, and a $82,600 pension for serving as county counsel in Sonoma for 12
years after that. He joined Marin as top counsel almost three years ago.
Critics in Marin and Sonoma
counties called Woodside’s pensions and pay an outrage, the result of an
extravagant “triple dip” system the public cannot afford, and called for an
independent probe of the grand jury’s assertions.
Woodside, a softspoken lawyer
who contends any errors occurring more than a decade ago cannot be used to roll
back benefits, has no reply for critics who have savaged him in social media
blurbs.
“I don’t choose to read them or
respond to them,” Woodside said. “It’s about the law, not the lawyer.”
May
1, 2015
Marin
Independent Journal
By Nels Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment