Contra Costa Times
ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif. — A former Alameda County fire assistant chief illegally collected a $60,000 salary as a part-time Sacramento area chief, while also receiving his East Bay $137,000-a-year pension, intentionally deceiving the state retirement system, a state administrative law judge has found.
David Wheeler, who retired from the Alameda County Fire Department on Jan. 8, 2007, was hired by the Loomis Fire Protection District the same year he retired, according to a Sacramento Bee report. When the district joined the CalPERS retirement plan in 2010, an employee from the pension giant warned him he could not continue working in the part-time gig and continue collecting his East Bay pension.
Judge Dian Vorters ruled Wheeler should pay back $460,000 in benefits he illegally received while working for Loomis. The CalPERS board will vote on the judge’s proposed decision Oct. 21, the newspaper reported.
The practice of retiring, collecting a pension and working elsewhere is known as “double-dipping.” In some scenarios it is allowed, but Wheeler was told by CalPERS officials numerous times he could not work more than 920 hours a year at the Loomis job if he wanted to collect his Alameda County pension. His job as the Loomis fire chief exceeded that, the Bee reported.
CalPERS attorneys called it a “five-year scheme” to defraud the retirement agency, according to the report.
“Their conduct, in violation of law, was not due to an excusable mistake, but was the result of deceit,” according to the state attorneys.
Lawyers for the fire district and Wheeler said they “made every effort to comply with the law and were repeatedly misinformed and misguided due to errors committed by CalPERS staff.”
Wheeler had argued in the past the job was a temporary position. However, the judge said the fact he held the job for six years undermined his claims, according to the Bee.
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