How much does the highest paid Sacramento County retiree get monthly from the county's pension system?
That's a question the Sacramento County Employees' Retirement System is willing to answer.
It turns out to be $15,749.64, or an annual pension of about $189,000.
Who gets it? When did the worker retire and from which job? Are pension spiking or double-dipping contributing factors?
Those are questions SCERS isn't willing to answer. It refuses to release any specifics.
In rejecting two Public Records Act requests from The Bee, SCERS officials said local statutes require them to keep confidential the details about who is getting money from the system – one largely funded by taxpayer money.
Three years ago, Sacramento County paid $190 million for retirement costs. That cost could approach $400 million this year.
Last spring, a watchdog group, the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, posted an online database of all retirees drawing pensions from the California Public Employees' Retirement System – the state system – who were getting more than $100,000 a year.
A number of counties, however, have their own system, and some haven't released the information.
In May, The Bee asked for a list of Sacramento County retirees who got at least $8,333 monthly, ($100,000 for the year). The SCERS lawyer said the information was confidential and would send only a list of dollar amounts and the departments with the most retirees getting big bucks.
Actually, very few county retirees get such big paydays, according to information SCERS did release.
In April, 221 retirees were getting $100,000 a year in SCERS pensions – just 2.8 percent of total retirees drawing from the system.
"In contrast, we think it is important to note that more than 70 percent of our retirees and beneficiaries received less than $3,000 in that month, and of that number, 26 percent receive less than $1,000 per month," SCERS wrote in its letter to The Bee.
In early July, a Contra Costa Superior Court judge ruled that county's system could not keep pension information from being released.
Following that decision, The Bee made a second records request to SCERS. The system's lawyer again denied the request, saying a ruling in another county is not legally binding on SCERS.
The lawyer cited a 2005 Sacramento Superior Court decision that personal identifiers for retirees are not required to be disclosed.
The McClatchy Co., which owns The Sacramento Bee, recently filed a lawsuit against Stanislaus County's pension system, which had denied a similar request for information from the Modesto Bee. The California First Amendment Coalition and California Newspaper Publishers Association have joined the case.
Send tips about your taxpayer concerns to publiceye@sacbee.com
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