Sonoma County - More Pension Debt
8/2/10:
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 last week to borrow $300 million by selling Pension Obligation Bonds. The County borrowed money by selling Pension Bonds twice before - in 1993 ($100 million) and 2003 ($230 million).
Last December the Pension Fund was supposed to have $2 billion, but the real market value of its investments was $1.3 billion. On a cash basis Sonoma County's Pension Fund was $700 million short!
And - Sonoma County still owes about $260 million on its first two Pension Bonds.
Sonoma County's debt caused by unfunded pensions is almost $1 BILLION.
One billion dollars is mind boggling - but in fact Mendocino County with a much smaller population and a weaker economy is in worse shape.
Both Counties are dangerously deep in debt. This is the third time in two decades both Boards of Supervisors and their financial officials allowed unfunded pensions to grow to such dangerous levels. Neither set of officials knows what keeps making this happen. Neither has told the people the truth about this debt. Neither has confronted what they need to do so it won't happen again.
This article (click to read) by Tom Lynch  details a number of problems with Sonoma County's third Pension Bond. Tom is quite active in a number of political issues in his County and is organizing to help his fellow citizens understand the dangerous debt their County officials have allowed to develop over the past 20 years.
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City of Bell Salaries and Pensions
8/4/10: I've mostly thought the public and media reaction to the City of Bell's outrageous salaries and pensions :was somewhat overblown. I doubt many local governments come anywhere near that level of corruption.
But then along came several very interesting articles.
When Police Chief Randy Adams was hired by Bell they more than doubled his salary from what he was earning at Glendale - up to $457,000 a year!
Adams, who ran a Police Department with fewer than 40 officers, made more than the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department with over 10,000 cops!
Some press reports say many other cities including Adams' former employers will experience a huge bump up in their unfunded pensions because of that outrageous salary at his last job. Others seem to dispute that. (Click to read a good LA Times report).
A very interesting article by the City Manager of Ventura ends with this thought:
The rampant municipal corruption in Bell is not the inevitable byproduct of demographics, nor can it be dismissed as simple human greed. The fault lies not in our stars nor canny crooks, but in ourselves. We allow nearly half a million of our fellow citizens to be trapped in corruption-plagued artificial jurisdictions.
Well worth reading (click here) - a very interesting examination of how the historical boundaries of cities in southeast LA created the conditions in which Bell's corruption flourished - in more cities than Bell.
Finally - a "hoot" of a website that is an amazing example of what this new "internet media" can do.
From PublicCEO.com (click to see story)
Long before the main stream media picked up on the corruption in Southeast cities like Bell, Los Angeles County had its own watchdog snarling in the margins. A self-described "courageously innovative, muckraking website", WatchOurCity.com (click to see) has been tattling on suspicious politicians in Southeast Los Angeles for the greater part of the decade.
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