Doing the Haffey Sidestep on PERS

George Rebane

Nevada County’s considerable (massive?) unfunded pension liabilities have been downplayed by the county electeds and staff for the last several years.  When this matter has been brought up to the Board of Supervisors by citizens, it has been either dismissed with hubristic silence or called a form of “rural myth” (more here).  This week county CEO Rick Haffey added his contribution by introducing a new version of this dance.  It was published in the 31may12 Union (‘Supes have taken proactive approach to public pensions’), and for those not having access to that newspaper – their website is paywalled – you can download a pdf of it here.

The bottom line, as Mr Haffey corroborates, is that the county will be $119M in arrears, to make up for the anticipated shortfall that CalPERS (the state employees’ pension fund manager) will require to pay county retirees in the outyears.  There is no plan for making up this amount, and Mr Haffey neither provides one nor states that one is in preparation.  On top of that, there is no indication that the county knows how much and when payments on the $119M will come due.  Such a schedule of dollars and dates, even in estimated form, is required to forge a plan to deal with these unfunded liabilities.

We can only deduce from this that the county, in its present make-up of electeds and staff, does not intend to address the problem – do they all plan to be gone then?  Instead, in Mr Haffey’s article he goes into some detail to exonerate the current Rood Center crew in having caused the problem or of having added to it.  The presentation focuses on decisions and provisions going forward that should be taken as long overdue but now prudent behavior on the part of state and local officials.  But there is nothing included on the disposition of the $119M overhang facing the county.

One wonders what Mr Haffey and county CFO Mr Joe Cristoffel have been telling people about our ability to deal with this problem in order to have soothed both county taxpayers and those expecting their pension allotments.  Mr Haffey’s Other Voices (OV) piece seems to be one more contribution to the series of calmatives dispensed from Rood.  In my email a correspondent submitted a set of tongue-in-cheek alternative summations of the OV article which are compiled below.

Summary #1 of OV:   "Don't worry about the 10,000 acre fire you see approaching on the horizon, we have prepared for this...we have 2 squirt guns and a half-full 5 gallon bucket of water at our disposal." 

Summary #2 of OV: "My current bosses are awesome.  All this pension crisis stuff - which I cannot confirm or deny - is not their fault. Please re-elect my bosses. Paid for by 1 of 6 public employee unions."

Summary #3 of OV: "Gotcha! We do have a pension problem. We vehemently denied such a problem for years ‘cause we thought the stock and real estate market were poised to soar again. My bad."

Summary #4 of OV: "We always knew that the pension crisis we denied did, in fact, exist and while you were sleeping we did a huge list of things on the margin to soften the blow. I will conveniently leave out the fact that the pension plan was fully funded, then pillaged (we increased the payouts by over 25% cause we had cash burning a hole in our pockets, everyone at the negotiating table received said raise and stocks/real estate never go down), just before we started fixing it again."   

Summary #5 of OV: "We have consulted with each of the 6 public employee unions and they promise us that there is no pension crisis."

In his conclusion, the best hope Mr Haffey can offer is that IF state and local remedies are adopted/implemented, then these “will go a long way in stabilizing public pension for both public employees and taxpayers.”  (emphasis mine)  He opines there’s a good chance that our $119M unfunded liabilities will not continue to grow - and that’s all?  Now don’t you feel better already?

Comments

[Russ Steele]

The County is “Hoovering” We had a dog named Hoover. He had a unique approach to dealing with animals that were bigger than he was, deer, bears, larger dogs. He would ignore them, pretend they were not there. If I do not recognize this threat then it it does not exist, and an I do not have to deal with it was his approach to problem solving. The County is Hoovering! It worked for Hoover. I have serious doubts that is will work for the County.

[Douglas Keachie]

So, the supervisors of days gone by wanted quality people, and the conservatives of yesteryear made it clear they would de-elect anyone who would raise the taxes to pay for the quality, and the TWO TOGETHER agreed to give promises of tomorrow's riches to prospective employees. Do not kid yourselves into thinking you are blameless in this issue. The conservatives of old Wildwood West made the deals happen that plague you today. Where's the DeLorean and Back to the Future when you need them? "Because you're mine, you're Walkering the line." Say Cheese!

[Barry Pruett]

Lassen County is debt free, operating under a balanced budget and have established a CalPers trust fund to fund the county's portion of post employment benefits.

I am told that Nate Beason asked a candidate for Assembly to stop telling Nevada County residents that Lassen is debt-free, because the facts about Lassen were making Beason look bad.

[Douglas Keachie]

There is one less "2 terms are enough" illegal sign out there.

[George Rebane]

DougK 932pm - are you bragging or lamenting?

[Douglas Keachie]

Actually I'm looking for clarification. Apparently all political signage has to have at least a website on it. Bulf has not only a paid for but also a approved by on it. Nate's real signs have a sticker that was added that says paid for. The judge against Anderson who's name I can't spell just now just has a website, as does Reed's.

[Douglas Keachie]

"whose"

[Russ Steele]

Some one is tampering with the "2 terms enough" signs on Banner Lava Cap, slicing the sign in half. Taking half and leaving the other half. I have taken a picture of one of the half signs near our house. On Gracie someone took the whole sign.

[Douglas Keachie]

Are the signs legal, Russ?

[Gregory]

Freedom of political speech is absolute. If a sign displaying political speech is on private property, it doesn't need to follow any regulation, and only requires the consent of the property owner to remain.

[Douglas Keachie]

This one was on public property, at a major intersection.

[Barry Pruett]

DougK: What happened to the sign?

[Douglas Keachie]

I think it was reposted in front of the sheriff's parking space.

[Brad Croul]

Doug, since no one claims ownership of the signs, they are effectively litter and you are doing a community service by removing them.

[Todd Juvinall]

Yard signs are free speech and do not require a disclaimer. Someone from the left thinks otherwise. If they are on public property they are generally removed and stored at Caltrans or county yards. I once found an off-duty CHP swiping my signs from private property and burning them up in his front yard up on Banner Mountain. I was shocked, shocked I say, he was for my opponent!

[Douglas Keachie]

"Someone from the left thinks otherwise."

but obviously not me. Haven't touched any signs ever on private property, especially not the ones about trespassers, shooting, and survivors, etc.

[George Rebane]

As an update on the matter at hand, Rick Haffey was just on KNCO rehashing the long way he and Supes have gone to "stabilize" future county pension expenditures. Not a word about dealing with the $119M unfunded liabilities that the county's pensioners are expecting to be paid. Sounds like the re-election machine is serving up another number featuring the Rood Center Rockettes doing the Haffey Sidestep. And no one out there in media land is curious (or astute?) enough to ask him?

[Dixon Cruickshank]

How many people are in the county to split that 119 up - just curious

Keachie -whatever it takes- Alinsky

you really are an arbuckle on the ass of progress you know

[Douglas Keachie]

Each person's share, given a population of about 100,000, would be $10 for each one million, or 119 x $10, math is not that difficult, except for those who would describe themselves as arses of progress, which is really a strange thing to do, some new perversion? Count me out.

[Brad Croul]

Regarding Lassen County, Lassen is home to the High Desert State Prison, California Correctional Center, a Federal Correctional Institution, and Herlong military base, a casino, an Indian Rancheria, power plants, and encompasses 4,720 square miles of land vs. 975 sq. mi. for Nevada County. It is not exactly an apple-apple comparison.

[Dixon Cruickshank]

Mr Keachie I do find it rather scary that you are a teacher, in more ways than 1.

Someone on here did mention that if they just ignored the issue the current residents of the Rood Center would be gone - I would bet they are hoping that to be the case that they are collecting by then.