Moorlach: Retroactive Pension Spike For Deputies Is Unconstitutional

When I first got wind Wednesday evening of the topic of today's press conference by Sup. John Moorlach, my reaction was two-fold: I was glad that some way out of the unfunded pension mess had been found, and at the same time felt bad for those sheriff's deputies who had based the retirement-timing decision based on the retroactive pension deal. I may not have liked the deal, but those deputies thought they had one.

The gist of Moorlach's proposal: the retroactive portion of the pension increase given to OC sheriff's deputies -- spiking it from 2% to 3% at 50 years of age -- violates the states constitution and must be rescinded.

Following today's press conference -- most of which consisted of Moorlach chief-of-staff Prof. Mario Maineiro leading those in attendance through the law and reasoning behind the conclusion the retroactive portion of the 3%-at-50 pension spike is contravenes the state constitution -- I'm fairly convinced the law is on Moorlach side, and the Board of Supervisors need to follow the law by rescinding the retroactive portion of the deputies' pension spike.

I'll post more thoughts later, but for now here's the PowerPoint presentation given by Maineiro and Moorlach's memo to his fellow Board members, and video of the press conference (posted as YouTube is able to digest it):

Comments

[Art Pedroza]

Great recap Matt.

[Long-time politico]

Mario did a solid job of making a complex set of legal arguments understandable. John Moorlach was moderated in his comments and showed commendable sensitivity to the recent retirees who may have made untenable retirement decisions based upon an unworkable/unconstitutional agreement. If the legal arguments sound half as solid to the other three supes as they did to this crowd, there will be a 5-0 vote to suspend the over-payments and to take the matter to the courts. Regardless of how one feels about this issue or about Supervisor Moorlach, this was handled with restraint and professionalism. You have to love representative self government; even if you don't care for the outcome, the entertainment value is high.

Are there more of Mario's comments? The last video doesn't seem to cover everything.

ped·a·go·gy

–noun,

1. the function or work of a teacher; teaching.

2. the art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods.

[Jubal]

There's more, but I can only go as fast as YouTube lets me.

[Fred]

How is his 150k new taxpayer funded office makeover doing?

[Jubal]

Fred/Jake:

First and last warning: any more profanity and you'll be exiled to the Village of the Banned.

[cold as ice]

in video 2 at 3:24 time stamp the professor clearly states that the state passed laws allowing both items, the 3%@50 and the retroactive actions of County's so does later law trump earlier law?