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The Grand Jury Discovered Marin Supervisors Broke the Law Awarding Massive Pension Increases
Help Fund A Lawsuit To Right This Costly Wrong
David Brown, acting independently of CSPP, has launched a website to raise money to hire an attorney with expertise in public pension law to bring a properly structured legal action against Marin County regarding its failures to comply with California Government Code Section 7507.
YOU CAN HELP SHOW OUR POLITICIANS THEY ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW AND HELP INVALIDATE THE ILL GOTTEN PENSION ENHANCEMENTS THAT HAVE LEFT MARIN TAXPAYERS WITH HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF DEBT!
The link to Mr. Brown's fundraising statement and website is: www.gofundme.com/pensionfairness where you can easily make a contribution of any amount and choose to include your name or do it anonymously. You will also find an email for more information. The site can also be found by going to the GoFundMe home page and entering the words “pension fairness” in the search field.
Section 7507, passed in 1977, requires government bodies to follow specific procedures before increasing pension benefits for employees. The purpose of section 7507 is to inform members of the public of the financial pension commitments being made on their behalf before they become irrevocable. The 2014/2015 Marin County Grand Jury found that in numerous cases The County (and three other public entities in Marin) failed to follow the law.
David's lawsuit will ask that the court declare that Section 7507 is mandatory and that failure to comply with it has an invalidating affect on the pension grants in question.
CSPP encourages you to support his efforts because the pension increases granted in violation of Section 7507 are unsustainable and are crowding out needed basic government services.
FOR A COMPLETE CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS LEADING TO THIS LAWSUIT VISIT OUR "NEWS ARCHIVES"
MARIN CIVIL GRAND JURY REPORT
Pension Enhancements: A Case of Government Code Violations and A Lack of Transparency
The Marin Civil Grand Jury has just released a report that could easily be the biggest financial scandal in Marin's history.
In its investigation of just four government bodies, the Grand Jury found that Marin County, City of San Rafael, Novato Fire Protection District, and the Southern Marin Fire Protection District granted no less than thirty-eight pension enhancements from 2001- 2006, each of which appears to have violated disclosure requirements and fiscal responsibility requirements of the California Government Code.
The report states:
One result of these pension enhancements is that they contributed to the increase of the unfunded pension liability of MCERA; this unfunded liability increased from a surplus of $26.5 million in 2000 to a deficit of $536.8 million in 2013. This increase may expose the citizens of Marin County to additional tax burdens to cover the unfunded costs and may place the future financial viability of the pension plans at significant risk.
Additionally, such an impact may impair the governments’ ability to provide the broad range of essential services that citizens are expecting; instead those funds may be used to pay for employee pensions.
Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans is calling for an independent legal investigation to determine the extent of violations and whether the contracts formed under such violations are valid.
Here is a list of links that provide the latest coverage and developments of this Grand Jury report:
- The Grand Jury Report: Pension Enhancements: A Case of Government Code Violations and A Lack of Transparency (Download)
- Marin grand jury flays pension benefit secrecy.
By Nels Johnson, Marin IJ 4/17/15 (Link) - Top Marin lawyer targeted in pension probe.
By Nels Johnson, Marin IJ 4/23/15 (Link) - The long-term cost of keeping taxpayers in the dark.
By Dick Spotswood, Marin IJ 4/25/15 (link)
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