Pensions, prisons and state workers traveling on the public’s dime were the most popular subjects for readers of The Sacramento Bee’s California state worker coverage in 2019.

Overall, the year’s readership numbers reflect interest in bread-and-butter issues for state workers and the state’s spending of taxpayer dollars. Here’s a look back at what caught your eye over the past year.

The California Rule

Lawsuits challenging the California Rule, the legal precedent that protects public pensions from being reduced without a corresponding increase to benefits, progressed this year.

In March, the state Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that ended a controversial retirement perk for public workers. The benefit, known as “air time,” had let public workers pay to retire early and receive the same pension as if they had worked up to five more years.

The court upheld the change, eliminating the benefit for all public workers, including those who were hired before the law ending air time took effect in 2013. The State Worker’s story on the ruling was its most popular of the year.

What does a city manager earn in retirement?

Readers were nearly as interested in our reporting on pensions so big they exceed IRS rules for public pensions.

The state is paying growing numbers of city, county and school district leaders the extra-large pensions they were promised in more generous times. A 2013 change to California law eliminated the big pensions, and air time, for anyone hired after that year.

Behind bars

Prison stories, most notably our look at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to close a California state prison, drew readers’ attention.

Newsom said that he would like, “in (his) lifetime and hopefully (his) tenure,” to close one of the state’s three dozen prisons. California lawmakers have talked about closing a state prison since shortly after it opened its first one, San Quentin, in 1852.

Also popular were our stories on prison riots, attacks on correctional officers and the lack of accommodations for pregnant women who work for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A judge ruled in September that six women who filed the suit must be offered light duty, but the judge didn’t extend the ruling to other female correctional officers. The case has yet to go to trial.

California’s travel ban

Readers wanted to know about California’s decisions to stop paying for its employees to travel to South Carolina and Iowa after those states reduced LGBT protections.

The state now restricts state-funded travel to 11 states under provisions of a 2016 law that prohibits state-funded and state-sponsored travel to states that void or repeal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Taxpayer-funded commutes

After the state auditor determined Caltrans was improperly paying for a mid-level manager’s San Diego-to-Sacramento commute, The Bee uncovered the same practice by the department’s former director.

Former Caltrans’ Director Laurie Berman’s commuting agreement wasn’t mentioned in the audit. In her case, the department was also paying rent for a Sacramento apartment, our reporting showed.

Nepotism

Readers followed the developments in a high-profile nepotism case at the Department of Industrial Relations.

Former Director Christine Baker was accused of skirting state civil service rules in hiring and promoting her daughter, who at one point worked under a division led by Baker’s brother. Baker has vigorously disputed the allegations, saying she was targeted by a group of employees and treated unfairly by the state auditor.

Readers asked

Rounding out our most-read stories were ones that readers asked us to investigate. In one case, we got to the bottom of mysterious checks that thousands of retired state workers received. They came from a 2012 class action lawsuit over late pay, and were a surprise to some of the retirees.

And, our story exposing a fancy retirement party for a California Prison Industry Authority manager — complete with $5,000 bathroom stalls outfitted with rugs, flowers, artwork and mints, was another popular read.

In the year to come we’ll continue our coverage of many of the same issues.

The parties in another lawsuit over pension benefits have filed briefs with the state Supreme Court.

Newsom’s upcoming budget proposal is expected to include details of his criminal justice agenda.

At least one other state has rolled back LGBT protections.

And The Bee has filed more records requests over state officials’ commutes and other state agencies’ spending.

Have ideas for other stories? Get in touch with reporter Wes Venteicher at 916-321-1410 or wventeicher@sacbee.com.

This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 5:30 AM.