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CALpers

Pension fixes are false hope of real reform

By: Melissa Griffin 02/07/13 11:27 PM
At the Jan. 24 meeting of the state Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Bill Emmerson, R-Redlands, began by pointing out, “The governor has identified $180 billion of unfunded retirement liabilities, and the pension changes that we made last year did nothing to address these pension liabilities.” Read More

Stockton bankruptcy leads to pension clash

By: Peter Henderson and Jim Christie 08/13/12 4:00 AM
Two bond insurers have challenged Stockton’s eligibility for bankruptcy, arguing that the city can cut pension benefits — a move that could have profound implications for the entire state.The court filings set a roadmap for a battle, in or out of bankruptcy court, in which Wall Street takes on the largest public U.S. pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, as troubled cities and counties watch closely. Read More

Pensions miss target, deal blow to budget

By: Melissa Griffin 07/18/12 8:37 PM
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors passed a two-year budget that assumed a 7.5 percent return on investment for its public-pension fund in the 2013-14 fiscal year. But even before it passed, it was already off by millions of dollars. Read More

We’re not done with pension reform in S.F.

By: Melissa Griffin 06/13/12 7:34 PM
With the overwhelming voter endorsement of pension reforms in San Jose and San Diego, folks here in San Francisco might be thinking, “Thank goodness we passed our own reform — Proposition C — last November.” Well, as was pointed out in this column and in public statements by Jeff Adachi and even mayoral candidate Joanna Rees, Prop. C was founded on the fanciful notion that we could continue to assume a 7.75 percent return on pension fund investments. Read More

Hypocritical pension funds lecture others

By: Steven Greenhut 10/09/11 4:00 AM
The nation’s two largest pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, have been plagued by myriad fiscal problems, and even a corruption scandal in the case of CalPERS, and yet these systems continue to lecture the private sector on ethical corporate governance. The latest hypocrisy, released last week, is a project funded by the two systems to promote “diversity” in board rooms. Read More

Merger of police services in San Mateo County creates salary double-dipping for some officers

By: Shaun Bishop 04/27/11 10:06 PM
As cities such as Half Moon Bay and San Carlos outsource police services to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, the change could give some officers an overnight income boost. The day before San Carlos handed its law enforcement to the sheriff to save $2 million per year, Chief Greg Rothaus retired and started drawing a $131,976 a year pension, according to CalPERS, the state retirement system that serves 1.6 million public employees. Read More

Cities cannot continue with their current cost structures

By: Jeff Ira 02/03/11 11:52 PM
The economic crisis that continues to plague our communities has shined new light on the skyrocketing costs local governments are facing with regard to public employee pension costs. Take Redwood City as an example. Over the next few years, Redwood City may face increases in public employee pension costs upward of an additional $2 million per year — approximately two-thirds of this related to public safety employees. Read More

Want a $100K annual pension? Get a state or local government job in California (And maybe your state, too) UPDATED: $100K in New York, too

By: Mark Tapscott 02/21/10 2:00 AM
Maybe there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, at least if you are one of the nearly 10,000 retired California public sector employees pulling down tax-paid pensions of $100,000 or more. Read More
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