[Marin County] Disputed pension benefits should be paid back

So the most recent Marin County grand jury reports that from 2000 through 2006 the county, a city in Marin and a Marin fire district authorized increased post-employment benefits to their employees without following the state requirement for a noticed public hearing and an actuarial analysis of the impact on the budget of those public entities and the impact on the taxpaying public.

In some cases, like the Board of Supervisors, the county administrator and counsel, their decisions enriched the post-retirement benefits of those who supported it.

Our Marin public officials have treated this grand jury report as a bunch of nit-picking history. We have been told that the illegally approved benefits cannot be rolled back and paid back.

They tell us we taxpayers are on the hook regardless of how illegal the actions were.

The attitude from our public officials, including our county counsel, has been “much ado about nothing.” I am president of a California corporation with shareholders. My thoughts go to what would happen if those shareholders found out that I and our union of employees granted those employees an increase in post-employment benefits without financial impact projections or board of directors vote as required by our corporate bylaws. And furthermore that those post-employment benefits also enriched me.

I do not have to think about this long to know that I would no longer be the president of our company and that I would also probably be part of a fraud investigation by the local prosecutor’s office.

As I understand it, the statute of limitations on all fraud and embezzlement actions does not start until the fraud is discovered and then the statute of limitations is several years.

In this country, we used to hold public officials to a higher standard than private business people because public officials are entrusted with managing the taxpayers’ money. The nonchalant reaction of our Marin public officials to the most recent grand jury findings demonstrate that the public trust in Marin is no longer what it was.

I say our public officials should at least be held to the same standards as private citizens.

I want a rollback of the illegal post-retirement benefits, a payback of any money that has been paid and an investigation of all public officials involved.

Let’s restore some level of accountability to the governance of our county and its public entities.

May 23, 2015

Marin Independent Journal

Readers’ Forum for May 24, submitted by Phil Paisley, Ross