Big pensioners: should they be named? (Califonia)

Calpensions ^ | 6-11-09 | Ed Mendel

[twistedwrench]

http://www.californiapensionreform.com/calpers/

Great database, searchable by city.

Looks like “transparency” makes some people nervous

[listenhillary]

city of Vernon retiree with a $499,675 annual pension.

Win the freaking lottery did he?

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[VeniVidiVici]

Bruce Malkenhorst, a city of Vernon retiree with a $499,675 annual pension.

How could any public employee retire with a half-million dollar pension?

[WOBBLY BOB]

How could any public employee retire with a half-million dollar pension?

maybe he was a union steward on the side:)

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[KarlInOhio]

Bruce V. Malkenhorst was Vernon’s city manager, finance director, city clerk, redevelopment director, treasurer and chief of light and power, all at the same time. He made $600,000 a year. I guess the city paid him full time for a bunch of part time jobs. He was charged for embezzeling even more money from the city, but I wasn't able to find if the trial has been completed yet and what the verdict may have been.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Very easily, I would think.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Vernon is notorious. It’s essentially a big industrial park, with tens of thousands of people working there during the day and a huge tax base. But the actual population is less than a hundred people, almost all of whom work for the city. Outsiders attempting to live there are actively discouraged. Elections are foregone conclusions. Basically it’s run entirely for the benefit of the insiders and has been that way for decades.

[pgkdan]

Bruce Malkenhorst, a city of Vernon retiree with a $499,675 annual pension.

This is an outrage! There's no way in hell that any public employee should retire on a half million dollar pension! This is thievery!

[junta]

Wonder what his party registration is?

[AuntB]

” Bruce Malkenhorst, a city of Vernon retiree with a $499,675 annual pension.

This is an outrage! There’s no way in hell that any public employee should retire on a half million dollar pension! This is thievery! “

Pure insanity! That’s more than the President of the USA is paid!

[KC Burke]

A lot of people don’t realize that many city governments across the nation in competing with state positions that pay more and against the private sector which also can pay more, find the equalizer in giving pensions that are gross-to-gross equivelent to making 75 to 95% of the highest salary the retired city employee made at their highest rate.

I have a freind who was the second ranking city attorney in a medium sized city and in discussing how modest his income was during his working years explained the trade off to me using his actual numbers.

I had to agree that he got screwed during his working years compared to private practice peers as accomplished as he was and that I saw the retirement date and amount as a big equalizer for his type of position. However, department clerks and meter readers get a high percentage as well and there is the real cost mounting up.

[listenhillary]

From the article

Malkenhorst, a city of Vernon retiree with a $499,675 annual pension.

Some stories say the sparsely populated industrial city near Los Angeles has been run by just two families, the Malkenhorsts and the Malburgs.

[dashing doofus]

I worked in finance, mostly public finance.

To properly value the value of a pension (a stream of payments, very similar to an annuity), you need to discount the cash flow back to net present value. (There are on line annuity calculators which will do this for you.)

If you go to a single premium annuity calculator, you will see that in order to create a cash flow of $50,000 annually, for 30 years, at a 5% return, you’d need an up-front investment of roughly $1 million.

Since many of the public union employees fully vest after five (or ten) years, and can collect on their pensions beginning at age 50 (individual union constracts will vary, but that’s fairly typical), the value of a modest $50K annual pension is $1 million.

How many private sector employees can retire at age 50 with a one million dollar balance in their 401Ks and IRAs??

Very, very few.

And, the pension does not even include the HUGE benefit from subsidized (sometimes 100%) health insurance for the retiree (and often all dependents), for life.

For this reason, I consider retiring cops and school teachers in areas like southern california, downstate NY, NJ, and other heavily unionized states to be millionaires. Its all in the numbers.

[dashing doofus]

Oh, and obviously they should be named, since they are public employees, and their pensions are paid mostly with funds contributed by the plan sponsor (i.e, the city or municipality, i.e. the taxpayer).

Here is what they do in Taxxachusetts (the unions hate this database):

http://www.bostonherald.com/projects/pensions/yearly_pension.DESC/

[martin_fierro]

Bruce "Mac Daddy In Retirement" Malkenhorst

[litehaus]

"How could any public employee retire with a half-million dollar pension?" ...

.

Didja foregt Fannies-- Franklin Raines..Water's 'man of the year" ?Recall he's a MILLION a year...Great reward for fraudulent earnings at the now 'busted Fannie Mae'-- huh?

[nufsed]

More info on Vernon.

http://www.businessinsider.com/damn-california-pensioners-are-guaranteed-a-lot-2009-6

The FBI needs to go through Vernon with flame throwers and hazmat suits. When the germs are all gone, they can start all over.

[twistedwrench]

Man of many talents.
Interesting information from an old Forbes article:

“Bruce Malkenhorst, 71, was for 32 years the city administrator as well as clerk, finance director, treasurer, redevelopment agency secretary and chief executive of the utility Vernon Light & Power. The city was reportedly paying him $600,000 a year, more than twice what L.A.’s mayor earns, until he resigned all posts unexpectedly and without public announcement in 2005. By most accounts Malkenhorst still pulls the strings. His appointed successor is his 42-year-old son, Bruce Jr.”

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0226/104.html