Hundreds Convene at Hearing Over Disputed Pension Benefits

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 19, 2007 at 12:52 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Several hundred San Diego city retirees showed up at a hearing today to defend disputed pension benefits worth $150 million.

Several hundred San Diego city retirees showed up at a hearing today to defend disputed pension benefits worth $150 million. The city's pension board admits that a previous board made a mistake in granting the benefits. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

City Councilwoman Donna Frye has called on city employees to give back benefits, called “purchase of service credits,” where an employee can buy years of service to qualify for a pension.

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It turns out the price of thousands of those so called “air years” was miscalculated. They've cost the city $146 million.

But labor attorney Anne Smith told the pension board it is too late to take the benefits back now.

Smith : You set the price, they paid it, they took their inheritance, they took money from under the mattress to make a purchase -- you come back years later and say 'by the way, you paid what I charged you but I've decided I should have charged you more.'

The pension board is considering what to do. If they do nothing, the city of San Diego will continue to pay off the $150 million as part of the city's billion-dollar pension debt.

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.