Pensions

Collecting nearly $318,000 a year, the former head of Los Angeles' Department of Water and Power tops a list of 841 city pension recipients paid six-figure benefits, according to newly obtained records. And, like many of the retirees, former DWP General Manager Ronald Deaton will be paid more beginning this summer -- boosting his annual retirement pay to more than $327,000 -- because of annual cost-of-living increases, records and interviews show. New DWP pension data provide a fuller picture of the city's largest retirement packages at a time when City Hall is cutting services, the public is being hit with recession-driven tax increases to cover government budget shortfalls and rising public pension costs are under close scrutiny.

As California's public retirement funds reel from losses of nearly $100 billion in recent years and lack enough cash to cover their long-term costs, thousands of state employees are collecting government pension checks along with their paychecks. John Benoit, a Republican state senator from Palm Desert and a former California Highway Patrol captain, is one. He draws a $98,600 annual state pension while also collecting a six-figure salary as a lawmaker. David Turner retired as a state fire chief in 2004, went back to work for the state firefighting agency two days later and is still employed there.

The direct income President Bush receives from taxpayers will be cut in half when he leaves the White House next week. Still, he'll receive a pension of almost $200,000 to tide him over in his first year of retirement in his new home in Dallas. Vice President Dick Cheney also will be able to survive a prolonged recession with a pension starting at about $132,000, according to the National Taxpayers Union, a taxpayer advocacy group that follows pension issues.

The former director of the U.S. government's pension agency invoked the 5th Amendment when senators probed allegations that he had improper contacts with Wall Street firms while running the agency that insures the pensions of 1 in 7 Americans. Charles E.F. Millard has previously denied that he was party to inappropriate phone calls and e-mails with firms that recently won multimillion-dollar contracts to advise the agency on a new strategy to invest its assets more heavily in stocks, real estate and private equity rather than more conservative securities.

Costs are quickly mounting in Orange County's effort to invalidate its pension agreement with sheriff's deputies, public records show. The county has already paid a total of more than half a million dollars to four law firms in the last year to research and develop a strategy for a legal challenge -- and that's before supervisors have even decided to take the case to court.

Re "Try living uninsured," Opinion, Feb. 4 Tina Dupuy has the right idea about health insurance, but she should go one step further. Not only deny state lawmakers health insurance for two months, extend it to the federal lawmakers and make it for six months. While denying health insurance, we should also examine the fat pensions these lawmakers gave themselves at the expense of the taxpayers. Stop pensions and make all these lawmakers follow the same rules as the common taxpayer -- pay into Social Security and Medicare.

The rumor had swept through this border town early in the morning, and soon several dozen women were clamoring outside a small government office. The rumor would prove false, as it has on many other days. There would be no distribution of pension payments for the Iraqi widows. Often, months pass between payments, with no provisions made for back payments and no explanations given for the gaps in time. "I have nothing," one widow cried to a government employee peeping out from a half-opened door.

Can a lawsuit seeking to cut pensions for Orange County sheriff's deputies be tried fairly in one of the county's own courtrooms? That question is at the heart of a motion filed in recent days by the board of the county retirement system, which has been sued by Orange County in a battle over $187 million in benefits. The board of the Orange County Employee Retirement System seeks to move the case to Los Angeles County, noting that many court employees -- including sheriff's deputies who provide courtroom security -- are members of the very retirement system named as a defendant in the case.

Could a lawsuit seeking to cut pensions for Orange County sheriff's deputies be tried fairly in one of the county's own courtrooms? That question is at the heart of a motion filed recently by the board of the county retirement system, which has been sued by Orange County in a closely watched battle over $187 million in benefits.

When Reed Royalty endorsed Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen's reelection campaign last month, he praised her for seeking to reduce pension benefits for sheriff's deputies "that may be unconstitutional." It was a logical comment for Royalty, an advocate of low taxes and limited government who is president of the Orange County Taxpayers Assn.