Posted on 11/13/2018 5:10:43 AM PST by ptsal
Citing concerns about possible pension liability, Larkspur officials this week took the first step toward severing the city’s membership in the Central Marin Sanitation Agency, a wastewater organization it helped form in the late 1970s.
The Larkspur City Council agreed Wednesday to give up the city’s seat on Central Marin’s six-member board of directors, which governs the infrastructure that treats sewage collected from Larkspur and other nearby areas. The council will vote on formal resolutions declaring the city’s severance at future meetings.
But Larkspur’s voice won’t be completely flushed down the drain when the withdrawal is finalized, one of the wastewater agency’s directors told the City Council.
“You absolutely have representation, regardless, through the Ross Valley Sanitary District,” said Michael Boorstein, an elected member of the Ross Valley board and an appointed director for Central Marin.
Larkspur joined Ross Valley Sanitary District in 1993, handing down its wastewater collection services to the larger provider. That district collects sewage from some areas in the Ross Valley and sends the wastewater to Central Marin Sanitary for treatment. Ross Valley has two seats on the Central Marin board.
(Excerpt) Read more at marinij.com ...
State lawmakers in September passed legislation that requires members of joint public agencies — like Central Marin Sanitation — assume equal responsibility for pension obligations when those agencies disband. The state Legislature wavered on whether to require equal responsibility even for functioning agencies.
The regulation was passed following an incident when the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, cut the pensions of about 200 former employees of a defunct job-training agency in Los Angeles County because the four cities that formed that agency denied responsibility for those payments.
Larkspur officials, in response, said they want to ensure the city doesn’t incur undue costs for an agency it doesn’t directly receive services from.
“We’ve seen the legislative approach to the CalPERS issue go in all kinds of different directions over the past year, which has been frightening, and it creates a sense of unpredictability,” said Councilman Kevin Haroff. “In order to avoid the concern about those kinds of legislative risks, I think it’s actually important for us to withdraw.”
Really is a disturbing portrait when one considers in a time like 1970 or even 1980, governments spent money on sanitation systems or roads or schools. Nowadays, a great deal of that money is now spent on pensions and other goodies in order to kow tow to the public service unions.
Across the board, we should make government (at all levels) about a third the size it is today — and no unions and no pensions.
Government is just legal looting.
Perhaps requiring recipients of public pensions to reside in state would be a progressive solution.
Think about all of California’s retired public employees that hopped over to Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and Montana.
I recall reading a story or comment from someone else here in that there have been a number of instances in which a public servant in Illinois has retired at an age like 50 or 55 and then moved to Indiana or another nearby state and taken a job there as well. So that they are getting the pension from the original job in Illinois plus a regular income from the job they’ll have for those few years in the other state. Then, they get pensions for both jobs upon retirement from the later one.
That has happened here in Va with retirees from N.Y./NJ moving here and taking a job.
I know of one couple from NYC that are living here and collecting FOUR pensions between them.
And supporting every lunatic democrat they can find.
In the coming years, almost all states and localities will have to devote a large part of their revenue to service accumulated pension obligations. The federal government will be similarly burdened by our vast national debt and growing interest payments that crowd out current spending. In this manner, the laws of finance and economics will help conservatives achieve the limitations on government that otherwise eluded us for decades.
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