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Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................4
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals............................. 5,6,7
Pets........................................8
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A Good Sign Indeed for the City
Inglewood City Council members accepted this hefty check for revenues generated from the digital signage that hovers above the District 2 Community Center. Photo: City of Inglewood
Court Delivers a Small Victory
to Cities With Pension Troubles
By Rob McCarthy
The California Supreme Court has ruled
against public-employee unions trying to
win back a retirement benefit that allowed
members to buy additional years of service
toward retirement. The court, however, stopped
short of giving cities and local governments
new authority to deal with their rising pension
costs.
State lawmakers followed the law when in
2012 they eliminated a retirement-boosting
perk known as “air time” that the justices
decided unanimously in a case brought by
a state firefighters union. Employees before
2013 could buy up to five more years of service
time toward retirement without working
that long. Air time was eliminated as part of
a mostly unsuccessful pension reform drive
led by former Gov. Jerry Brown.
A 20-year veteran firefighter could retire
with 25 years of service until air time was
eliminated. CalFire, the union representing
state firefighters, argued the buy-in option for
additional service time was legally protected.
The California Public Employees Retirement
System countered that air time could be
eliminated because it wasn’t compensation
-- it was a voluntary option. CalPERS, which
manages state employee pensions, won at
trial and on appeal before California’s highest
court accepted the case.
“The court said that just because you have
an expectation doesn’t mean you’re going to
get what you expect,” said Dan Pellissier,
president of California Pension Reform. His
group supports public pension reform, including
the granddaddy of them all: letting state
and local governments rework their pensions.
Neither side got everything it wanted from
the California Supreme Court ruling, however.
The justices left intact a different rule favored
by the unions. That one, called “the California
Rule,” was left untouched.
The California Rule protects the retirement
benefits of public employees who’ve already
started earning service time. The rule says
retirement plans cannot be downgraded, and
they can only be changed if the replacement
benefits are better. Local governments facing
millions of dollars in pension liabilities in
future years were looking for some rule relief
from the court in the CalFire case.
However, the justices limited their attention
in the case to the union’s loss of air time and
saw no need to revisit the California Rule. The
non-decision leaves local cities and agencies
on the hook for retirement benefits to former
employees and current ones whose benefits
can’t be reduced.
Ted Toppin, chairman of Californians for
Retirement Security, said the decision against
air time wasn’t unexpected. “More importantly,
the Supreme Court leaves intact the
California Rule,” he said. His group backed
CalFire’s arguments with court briefs and
said it accepted the justices’ mixed decision
in the highly watched case.
Starting in 2003, many public employees
could buy up to five years of service credit
by making payments to their pension fund.
Ten years later, the Legislature approved the
2013 Public Employees Pension Reform Act
and eliminated the opportunity for public
employees to purchase additional retirement
service credit, or ARS. Unions said the pension
reform was unconstitutional.
CalFire reached the state Supreme Court
after losing on appeal in a lower court. Chief
Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye wrote the
new opinion, which was unanimous, that
concluded “the opportunity to purchase ARS
credit was not a right.” Reading the law that
created the ARS option convinced the justices
it was a perk rather than compensation
promised to employee who retired. “Unlike
core pension rights, the opportunity to purchase
ARS credit was not granted to public
employees as deferred compensation for their
work,” the chief justice wrote.
The limited ruling in the public-employee
pension case, which favored state, county
and local governments, stopped the state’s
justices from reinterpreting the California
Rule, the chief justice explained. CalPERS
and state elected officials, including former
Gov. Brown, had argued for a re-examination
of the rule as financial pressures mount on
them to pay the benefits of retirees who are
outliving their counterparts from the early
1980s by a full five years.
The average life expectancy of Americans
has reached 78 years, based on 2016 data.
Men can expect to live to 76 years, compared
to 70 years in 1980 when today’s longesttenured
retirees were hired. For women, the
current average is 81 years, compared to 76
years back in the ‘80s.
The California Supreme Court’s ruling got
mixed reviews from unions and taxpayer
groups, including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers
Association. The group is best known for
getting Prop. 13 passed and capping property
tax increases at 2 percent per year.
President Jon Coupal observed how reactions
to the CalFire decision were divided.
Two conservative groups differed over whether
See Pension Troubles, page 8
Friday
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Sunday
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The Weekly Newspaper of Inglewood
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 68, No. 12 - March 21, 2019