CalPERS, the California Public Employee Retirement System, has failed government employees who deserve so much better. The latest revelations likely are just the tip of the iceberg in the culture of corruption at CalPERS. The last CEO of CalPERS, a former California State Director of Personnel, has pleaded guilty to taking large and small bribes, $250,000 cash in envelopes and a shoe box, payment for his wedding, a worldwide trip, rooms at two Tahoe casinos, a job for $25,000 per month after he left CalPERS; illegally awarding contracts; and conspiring to cover up his crimes. Justice will be served this fall in the criminal case against him.
How does this affect Coronado? Our off-balance-sheet Pension Debts are approximately $300 million. But it’s unrealistic to expect CalPERS to give us the honest amount of Coronado’s Pension Debts in a timely manner to disclose to the public on our books. This means that our city will continue to keep Coronado taxpayers in the dark about the staggering Pension Debts for which Coronado taxpayers are responsible. And Coronado politicians will continue to kick the can and spend, spend, spend your tax dollars on annual budget plans filled with fat and gross waste.
In his article in the Sacramento Bee on 11 July 2014, Dale Kasler wrote:
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The first two payments were made in paper bags. The last installment came in a shoebox. The handoffs all came at a Sacramento hotel near the Capitol.
In a stunning admission covering years of corruption, the former chief executive of CalPERS said Friday he accepted $200,000 in cash, along with a series of other bribes, from a Lake Tahoe businessman who was attempting to influence billions of dollars in pension fund investment decisions.
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Fred Buenrostro, who ran the nation’s largest public pension fund from 2002 to 2008, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud. He has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors as they pursue charges against his longtime friend, Nevada businessman Alfred Villalobos, a former CalPERS board member.
Buenrostro, 64, said that Villalobos plied him with casino chips and a trip around the world, plus a high-paying job with his investment firm after leaving CalPERS. He also admitted working with Villalobos to create phony documents to ensure that Villalobos earned his multimillion-dollar fees representing a Wall Street private equity firm seeking CalPERS investments . . .
