Some observations from the recent legislative committee hearing that considered Gov. Jerry Brown's 12-point public pension reform plan:

• He's serious. Capitol observers speculated that the governor was merely fulfilling a campaign promise when he issued a plan last month to roll back public pensions for new hires and hike what current employees pay into the system. Cynics figured that the Democrat, beholden to union interests that helped him win office, would let the plan die.

The governor's appearance at last Thursday's committee hearing pretty much put that to rest.

Brown sees a pension reform initiative backed by the Legislature as a credibility test for lawmakers. Why should voters OK the state sales and income tax hike Brown wants if lawmakers can't muster up the courage to put a pension proposal up for public consideration?

• Local employees hit harder. Most state workers won't be affected by the governor's call for employers and employees to split "normal" pension costs 50-50. Local government workers? Different story.

(Normal costs don't include a system's unfunded liabilities. CalPERS figures its unfunded liabilities were between $85 billion and $90 billion as of June 30, 2011. Public pension critics say that figure is woefully low.)

Right now, most state workers pay half or more of that expense under terms of their latest contracts.

For example, CalPERS says that so-called "miscellaneous workers," about two-thirds of the state workforce, put 8 percent of their salary into their pension accounts. The state picks up the rest of the 14.4 percent normal cost.

Nearly all of the local government employees in CalPERS pay less than half of the normal cost, the fund says, and some employers pick up the workers' share.

• No rambling zone. The special pension committee has held two hearings during the legislative recess. It's the legislative equivalent of summer school for lawmakers, a sign that that an issue is so serious that it needs extra attention.

But not a bunch of rambling, repetitive comments, said Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, the committee's co-chair.

So, late in the hearing, the Chino Democrat asked the queue of folks waiting to comment on Brown's plan, "Does everybody know what 20 minutes is?" She was referring to how much time the committee allotted for public statements.

The senator was mindful of the time, she said in a telephone interview, because "everybody was droning on and on," Brown's appearance had squeezed the hearing schedule and "people needed to leave. They had planes to catch."

Negrete McLeod had to be somewhere too: a 5 p.m. Sacramento fundraiser for her congressional campaign where tickets reportedly started at $99 per plate and topped out at $2,500 for sponsors.

She was a few minutes late.

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Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043. Read his blog, The State Worker, at sacbee.com/blogs.

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