Calpers

State pension officials have concluded that the city of Vernon improperly boosted the benefits of nearly two dozen employees, including some attorneys who were erroneously granted generous "public safety" retirement packages usually reserved for police officers and firefighters. The findings are likely to result in pension cuts for some city officials and cap what CalPERS described as one of the farthest-reaching investigations in the system's history. It comes as Gov. Jerry Brown and the state Legislature debate significant changes in public pensions to ease the state's fiscal crisis.

SACRAMENTO --Adding weight to a growing backlash over alleged corruption in Mexico, the California Public Employees' Retirement System is withholding its support for the election of nineWal-Mart directors. The $228-billion CalPERS fund said it would not support the officers pending "a thorough and independent investigation into the bribery allegations" involving the company's largest foreign subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico.

The nation's largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, posted a 1.1% return on its investment portfolio in 2011, Chief Investment Officer Joseph Dear told his board. The 2011 performance was well below the estimated average annual return of 7.75% that the fund's actuaries say is needed to meet current and future obligations to its members. The $229.5-billion CalPERS provides retirement and other benefits for 1.6 million state and local government employees and their families.

The top administrator in Huntington Park stepped down this week after city officials learned his employment appeared to violate state retirement rules. Interim City Manager Raul Romero was notified by CalPERS last Thursday that he had exceeded the number of hours retired employees may work while still collecting pension benefits. He resigned Monday. Romero said he had retired from the City of Commerce in 2002 and continued working through his consulting company, R&R Municipal Solutions, over the last decade.

Bowing to the realities of a volatile stock market and a weak investment climate, the nation's largest public pension fund lowered its benchmark assumed rate of return. The board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System voted 9 to 1 to reduce its expected, average annual return on its investments to 7.5% from 7.75%. That was a quarter of a percentage point higher than what had been recommended by CalPERS' chief actuary, Alan Milligan. In addition to lowering the assumed rate of return, which had been previously approved by a CalPERS committee, the board also agreed to reduce its assumed average annual inflation rate to 2.75% from 3%. The changes, which kick in for the state government and school districts July 1, will cost the state general fund $167 million in higher pension costs in the next budget year.

Pension fund The California Public Employees' Retirement System is the largest public pension fund in the nation. Based in Sacramento, the fund -- known as CalPERS -- provides retirement benefits for 1.6 million active and inactive state and local government workers, retirees and their families. It also manages healthcare benefit programs for 1.3 million people. Overseen by a 13-member board of administration. Some board members are elected by state workers and retirees; others are appointed.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System is reviewing its relationship with private equity firm Apollo Management in the wake of steep losses on investments placed with the New York asset manager. The review began in May and is focused on reducing administrative and management fees, said Pat Macht, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento agency known as CalPERS, which manages $200 billion in retirement assets -- the country's largest pension fund -- on behalf of current and former state and municipal employees.

Bowing to the realities of a volatile stock market and a weak investment climate, the board of the nation's largest public pension fund lowered its benchmark assumed rate of return. The board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System voted 9-1 Wednesday to reduce its expected average annual return from 7.75% to 7.5%. That was a quarter of a percentage point higher than what had been recommended by its chief actuary, Alan Milligan. The board also agreed to reduce its assumed average annual inflation rate from 3% to 2.75%.

Directors of the California Public Employees' Retirement System endorsed ethics and open-government proposals but put off decisions on stronger measures aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest and self-dealing, issues that have plagued the fund over the last few years. CalPERS wrestled with recommendations from an internal review of operations after it was rocked by claims that it was too cozy with outside investment firms and allowed go-betweens to get exorbitant fees simply for referring deals to many of Wall Street's most powerful private equity, hedge fund and real estate investment managers.

The nation's largest public pension fund said it would vote against the reelection of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, to News Corp.'s board of directors at the Oct. 21 annual shareholder meeting. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, said in a statement Friday that the media giant's shareholders would benefit from greater board independence. Murdoch controls about 40% of News Corp.'s voting shares. The announcement by CalPERS, the 22nd largest company shareholder with about 1.4 million voting shares, comes after influential advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services this week advised voting against the reelection of 13 of the company's 15 directors, saying the damaging consequences of a British phone hacking scandal reflects a failure of board "stewardship.

State pension officials have concluded that the city of Vernon improperly boosted the benefits of nearly two dozen employees, including some attorneys who were erroneously granted generous "public safety" retirement packages usually reserved for police officers and firefighters. The findings are likely to result in pension cuts for some city officials and cap what CalPERS described as one of the farthest-reaching investigations in the system's history. It comes as Gov. Jerry Brown and the state Legislature debate significant changes in public pensions to ease the state's fiscal crisis.

SACRAMENTO — Federal securities regulators sued a former chief executive and a former director of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, accusing them of scheming to defraud an investment firm of $20 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that former CEO Federico Buenrostro Jr., 62, and former director Alfred J.R. Villalobos, 68, fabricated documents requested by Apollo Global Management, a New York private equity firm. Apollo had hired Villalobos, a close friend of Buenrostro, as a so-called placement agent to secure billions of dollars of investments from the country's largest public pension fund.

SACRAMENTO - Federal securities regulators sued a former chief executive and a former director of the country's largest public pension fund, accusing them of scheming to defraud an investment firm of more than $20 million in fees. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed the lawsuit Monday against the former CEO, Federico Buenrostro Jr., and the former CalPERS board member, Alfred J.R. Villalobos, alleging that they fabricated documents provided to Apollo Global Management in New York.

Medco Health Solutions has agreed to pay $2.75 million and change its internal procedures to settle claims that it paid millions in bribes to win a contract to provide prescription drugs to members of the California Public Employees' Retirement System. The settlement was the latest development in a case that began in 2004 and involved allegations of dealings between the then-head of CalPERS, Federico Buenrostro Jr., and a paid Medco consultant and former CalPERS board member, Alfred J.R. Villalobos, who helped secure the $26-million contract in 2006.

Bowing to the realities of a volatile stock market and a weak investment climate, the nation's largest public pension fund lowered its benchmark assumed rate of return. The board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System voted 9 to 1 to reduce its expected, average annual return on its investments to 7.5% from 7.75%. That was a quarter of a percentage point higher than what had been recommended by CalPERS' chief actuary, Alan Milligan. In addition to lowering the assumed rate of return, which had been previously approved by a CalPERS committee, the board also agreed to reduce its assumed average annual inflation rate to 2.75% from 3%. The changes, which kick in for the state government and school districts July 1, will cost the state general fund $167 million in higher pension costs in the next budget year.

Bowing to the realities of a volatile stock market and a weak investment climate, the board of the nation's largest public pension fund lowered its benchmark assumed rate of return. The board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System voted 9-1 Wednesday to reduce its expected average annual return from 7.75% to 7.5%. That was a quarter of a percentage point higher than what had been recommended by its chief actuary, Alan Milligan. The board also agreed to reduce its assumed average annual inflation rate from 3% to 2.75%.

SACRAMENTO - Federal securities regulators sued a former chief executive and a former director of the country's largest public pension fund, accusing them of scheming to defraud an investment firm of more than $20 million in fees. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed the lawsuit Monday against the former CEO, Federico Buenrostro Jr., and the former CalPERS board member, Alfred J.R. Villalobos, alleging that they fabricated documents provided to Apollo Global Management in New York.

Taxpayers probably are going to be paying more for state government and school district employee pensions beginning in July. A committee of the California Public Employees' Retirement System board voted 6 to 2 on Tuesday to cut the assumed annual rate of return on investments that it uses to calculate the contributions that need to be collected from the state and some 2,000 other public agencies. The committee set the new benchmark at 7.5%, down from a two-decade-old rate of 7.75% but higher than the 7.25% recommended by its own chief actuary, Alan Milligan.

The financially beleaguered state government and school districts probably will be paying more for their employees' pensions, starting next summer. A key committee of the board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System on Tuesday voted 6 to 2 to cut its benchmark assumed rate of return on its investments to 7.5% from a two-decade-old target of 7.75%. The change, if approved Wednesday by a majority of the full 13-member board, would cost the state general fund an additional $167 million, boosting the total bill for the 2012-13 fiscal year to approximately $3.7 billion.