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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