By Sophia Kazmi
The Contra Costa Times
SAN RAMON, Calif. — The San Ramon Valley Fire District should amend some of its benefits policies to avoid the spiking of pensions that have alarmed area taxpayers, a committee has recommended.
Changing and eliminating some of the benefits would help end a practice that allows managers to add ancillary pay toward their final pension calculations, allowing them to make more in retirement than they did when employed.
The San Ramon Valley Fire board will meet Monday night to review the recommendations, drafted by a committee consisting of board members Roxanne Lindsay and Tom Linari. The board will discuss the recommendations and could vote whether to adopt some or all of them.
The district’s pensions policy came under scrutiny after a series of Bay Area News Group editorials revealed that four of the top pension receivers in Contra Costa County are retired San Ramon Valley Fire administrators who make more than $245,000 annually in benefits more than they earned while district employees.
Fire officials are entitled to retire at age 50, with their annual pension based on 3 percent of their highest salary for every year they were employed. The board cannot change that policy, according to a consultant.
But additional pay and benefits such as vehicle allowances, administrative leave or other cash benefits above salary levels can be added into pension calculations. The board has the right to change or eliminate those benefits.
In the San Ramon fire district, the changes could decrease by about $40,000 the pay that could be added to pension calculations. The changes wouldn’t apply to current retirees or most of the current managers, but would take effect for the fire chief and newly promoted managers.
Some of the proposed changes are:
Eliminating the vehicle allowance for the fire chief. New managers would not receive the stipend, and instead would be provided with a district vehicle.
Changing how administrative leave is accrued. Leave would be accrued and credited to the employee on a monthly instead of annual basis. The accrual, either 80 hours or 40 hours a year, depending on the position, would be capped at one year’s accrual at any time until the balance is below the maximum. Managers could sell up to a year’s worth of leave back to the district. If they sold leave and retired in the same year, any unused leave would be converted to vacation time.
Managers could cash out up to two weeks of vacation a year within a 12-month period by notifying the district by Nov. 1. The employee would be paid in the final check of that year.
The last two changes are meant to prevent “straddling,” where it is possible to cash out twice before retiring and still have that money used toward pension calculations.
“The committee recommendations do not solve every problem with the public pension system,” Lindsay wrote. “The recommendation are, however, designed to eliminate the most egregious local practices and to prevent future abuses by establishing sound public policy that will hold all board members accountable for their actions "... on employee compensation.”
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