Marin pension service needs improvement, grand jury report says

Richard Halstead
Posted: 06/28/2009 07:22:25 PM PDT

Marin County and other government employees are finding it difficult to get their retirement benefits calculated in a timely fashion, and the board that oversees the Marin County Employees Retirement Association needs to take action, according to a Marin County grand jury report.

The association, which administers the retirement benefits of employees of Marin County, the city of San Rafael and other governmental agencies, is overseen by a nine-member board. The board also reviews disability retirement claims and oversees investment of retirement funds.

But in its report released last week, the grand jury focused exclusively on the association's administration and complaints of "excessive delays in computing and delivering retirement benefits." Such calculations are crucial when employees are planning when to schedule their retirement.

The grand jury said that as recently as March, one of the county's employee unions complained that customer service was continuing "to plummet."

"There was a growing backlog in calculating benefits. There were also complaints about discourteous treatment by staff," the report said.

Robin Barber, a spokeswoman for the county's more than 1,200 Service Employees International Union members, said she's received lots of complaints from union members over the past couple of years.

"People have been complaining about not being able to get benefits calculated, not being able to get information, not being able to get timely appointments," Barber said. "It's been a problem."

The grand jury also reported that staff turnover at the association in the past 21Ú2 years "has been disturbingly high." During 2007 and 2008 there were 14 people who were hired and who then left after two to five months. The association currently employs 15 people.

The report made no mention that the pension board awarded the person in charge of the association, Administrator Charnel Benner, a $10,000 performance bonus in November 2008, after Benner's salary had been boosted 44 percent to $216,000 a year in 2007.

Jim Phillips, the pension board's chairman and president of JP Capital Management in San Francisco, said none of the problems cited in the grand jury report are Benner's fault.

"Her work has been very, very good," Phillips said. "There is no reason why her work should be the cause for any complaints."

Benner took issue with the report's contention that customer service was still a growing problem in March.

"In fact, customer service has improved significantly; turnaround time has shortened significantly," Benner said. "By no circumstances can anyone honestly say that customer service has continued to plummet."

Benner attributed high staff turnover to employees who joined the association when the mortgage brokerage business tanked and then decided to return to the private sector.

http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_12706861?nclick_check=1