City of Fresno Pensions: Who Knew What and When?

As a former City of Fresno council member, I thought that I was thoroughly familiar with the city's pension system. During public hearings, the city's pension manager routinely provided council members with an audited report as well as a state of the pension fund briefing. The council was very satisfied with the management and oversight provided by the city's Pension Board. In fact, the city's fund portfolio for most of the time I was on the council more than 10% oversubscribed/paid for and widely recognized as one of the safest public sector pension funds in California due to prudent investments and conservative management. For years Fresno was one of the few cities in California that did not have to tap the general fund in order to meet pension obligations.

The ever-present danger of providing overly generous pension payouts to city employees that could rebound to the city's detriment in later years was always carefully considered by the mayor and council during the course of contract negotiations. We were very aware of the damaging effects of profligate spending, particularly on pensions, of both large California cities like San Diego and small cities such as Vallejo.

I was, then, quite surprised and disappointed to read George Hostetter's recent article in the Fresno Bee showing that 72 of the city's 865 former police or fire employees had annual pensions above $100,000. Only five of the city's 1,402 nonpublic-safety retirees reached the $100,000 level. Unfortunately, those statistics were never shared with the council. I do not know whether former Mayor Alan Autry was aware of the over $100,000 pensions. He should have, however, since the city manager reports to him.

I know that the council would have "gone through the roof" if it had known about the higher pensions. Staff obviously did not share that information with the council. Unfortunately, the council--to include me--failed to ask the right question.

It is quite obvious that Mayor Swearengin and the current council need to fix the problem of the out-sized pensions. This can be done without unfairly reducing the pension outlays for the remaining 95 percent of deserving city employees.

A final thought on the Bee's request to the city for the names of those employees receiving the higher-level pensions: Do it. Salary and pension payments are provided by city taxpayers. Public employees have no legal right to keep this information from the media and/or public.

Coming Soon. . .

1. Thanks, Andy Souza. We will miss you.
2. Where are our private sector leaders?
3. FUSD hires the insiders.

Comments are welcome. Click on "Comments" below or e-mail me at abriancalhoun@gmail .com.