Posted on 07/17/2009 12:56:38 PM PDT by SmithL
San Francisco's skyrocketing pension costs are untenable and both unions and politicians are to blame for abusing the system by negotiating extraordinary pension and retirement benefits without considering the unfair burden on future generations, according to a report issued Thursday.
City officials acknowledged that San Francisco has some challenges. But Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who has worked extensively on the issue, said the civil grand jury report grossly overstates the city's risk. He noted that voters, not politicians, have the ultimate say on the approval of retirement benefits. And because of that, he said, San Francisco is in a far better place than comparable cities and counties, as well as the state of California, over the long term.
The document specifically targets San Francisco's police officers and firefighters for essentially gaming the system through "spiking" - the practice of artificially inflating retirement benefits by increasing their compensation just before retiring, often through temporary promotions. The jury calls the practice "institutionalized and ongoing" in public safety agencies and estimates it cost the city and other employees at least $132 million over a 10-year period ending in 2008. The report said more than half of police and firefighters who have retired since 1998 receive a pension worth more than their highest pay.
Grand Jury member Craig Weber, an accountant, said the city should conduct an independent investigation into spiking and a review of pension benefits at both agencies. But he said the practice is more pronounced at the Fire Department, and credited Police Chief Heather Fong for bringing it under control.
Firefighters union president John Hanley flatly rejected the jury's findings, saying spiking does not occur in San Francisco because promotions are based on civil service tests.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This goes on across the whole country. Almost typed whore country and wouldn’t have been far off.
Vallejo, CA. Police Sgt. made 150K/yr.
City goes bankrupt.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/02/pf/retirement/vallejo.moneymag/index.htm
Where’s my pension??? Oh wait, I have to earn it and save it in a 401k, and hope the whores on Wall Street and DC don’t steal it.
Its a whore with AIDS then. You pay until one or both dies.
Pigs at thw trough do not care for anything other than what they can get right now. Screw everyone else.
Remind me again who runs SF???
Yup. But this is a nationwide problem. Most corporate pensions disappeared 20 years ago, but all the public employees still get theirs. How much do I have to save to retire at 50-55 and get $60-70,000 a year? In this market, probably well over a $million. Nothing if I was a teacher. The damn politicians have used this inter generational accounting scheme to show their so called effectiveness while they are in office, with the chickens coming home to roost long after they move on. Teachers, Fire, Police, staff, prison guards, all of them are getting to damn much. No wonder every last one of them had Obama signs.
Too late! They have already stolen it and the payoffs to their buddies are being made right now.
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