City Won't Reduce Employees' Overvalued Pension Benefits

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 16, 2007 at 2:42 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego citys pension board has decided not to reduce the value of benefits awarded to employees by the previous pension board, even though those benefits were overvalued.The shortfall $150 millio

San Diego city’s pension board has decided not to reduce the value of benefits awarded to employees by the previous pension board, even though those benefits were overvalued. The shortfall $150 million will have to be born by the taxpayer. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

City employees can buy into bigger pensions by purchasing years of service, instead of actually working those years.

An actuary has calculated the employees should have paid more for those years to cover the cost of the benefits.

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But pension system spokeswoman Rebecca Wilson says the mistake was made by the previous pension board.

Wilson : This was the old board who had set the pricing, so the new board had taken it upon themselves to look at any possible remediation and came up unanimously in favor of this particle course of action.

“This particular course of action” is to do nothing, leaving the taxpayer to carry the bag. The city council has not weighed in. The mayor’s office put out a release saying Sanders considers this unacceptable, and will recommend hiring outside council to advise the city on its options.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.

City Won't Reduce Employees' Overvalued Pension Benefits

San Diego citys pension board has decided not to reduce the value of benefits awarded to employees by the previous pension board, even though those benefits were overvalued.The shortfall $150 millio

San Diego citys pension board has decided not to reduce the value of benefits awarded to employees by the previous pension board, even though those benefits were overvalued.The shortfall $150 millio