This is why California is boned. Yeah, let’s keep adding to the debt. Makes perfect sense to me. Oh, and let’s raise the taxes again! And let’s give more free shit to illegal aliens too! That will solve everything.
Berkeley city manager not unique retiring with bigger pension than salary – ContraCostaTimes.com
Daniel Borenstein: Berkeley city manager not unique retiring with bigger pension than salaryBy Daniel BorensteinStaff columnistPosted: 01/07/2012 04:00:00 PM PSTUpdated: 01/09/2012 06:20:35 AM PSTIn November, Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz traded his $250,000-a-year job for retirement with a starting pension of about $266,000 annually.The deal highlights the city’s generous pension program, which is one of the better plans in the state but by no means unique. The costly program is also $420 million underfunded, a shortfall equal to more than three years of city payroll, according to the city’s latest actuarial reports.Kamlarz’s hefty retirement pay was predictable. Three years ago, Mayor Tom Bates successfully persuaded his City Council colleagues to grant the city manager a series of raises to keep him on the job. As Bates pointed out then, Kamlarz could have collected just as much in retirement.The irony was that the raises didn’t solve the problem. Rather, they ensured that Kamlarz’s pension would increase by roughly a like amount whenever he finally walked out the door.As a result, whereas he could have left with a starting annual pension of $219,000 in January 2009, he left at the end of 2011 with 21 percent more a year for the rest of his life. The retirement pay also comes with annual cost-of-living adjustments.
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