Grudgingly, CalPERS cuts pensions for 200 workers of defunct LA agency
For the second time in four months, CalPERS on Wednesday voted to cut pensions for a group of public workers whose former employer quit contributing to the retirement fund without making arrangements to protect their benefits.
The unanimous vote will lead to a reduction in benefits by up to 63 percent for about 200 former employees of the East San Gabriel Valley Human Services Consortium, a job-training program that was also known as LA Works.
The vote to cut pensions became inevitable last month when the four cities that created LA Works in 1979 wrote letters to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System refusing to catch up on delinquent payments. They argued that LA Works was a joint powers agency that was not under their direct control, and the cities – Azusa, Covina, Gardena and West Covina – did not have an obligation to make good on benefits for its former workers.
“This is not an acceptable situation by any means. It’s not acceptable by the employees or retirees who’ve come to rely on a pension benefit that was promised to them,” said CalPERS Chief Executive Marcie Frost.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article138684338.html