Sonoma County’s struggle with pension costs stokes race between Noreen Evans and Lynda Hopkins

Noreen Evans and Lynda Hopkins, the two candidates vying this November to succeed Efren Carrillo on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, are staking out starkly different positions on how to rein in the county’s escalating pension costs, which have climbed nearly every year for almost two decades.

Last fiscal year, taxpayers chipped in $113 million for county employee pensions, an amount up 500 percent since 2000. Together with a pair of pension obligation bonds, the county’s unfunded pension obligations - the difference between current assets and projected payments to retirees - stand at $831 million, about half the county budget.

Evans, a former state legislator and Santa Rosa councilwoman, touted her work on state pension reform, including the vote she cast in 2012 for the state law that created a new lower-benefit tier for public employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2013.

Evans said additional county reforms are needed, and that if elected she would focus her efforts on cutting pension costs tied to upper-management employees. She said that could be done through collective bargaining.

“I think the Board of Supervisors moving forward has to tackle the big drivers of those costs - manager-level employees,” Evans said.

Evans is drawing a large share of her campaign donations from unions. The county’s largest group of represented workers, the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, has endorsed her, contributed to her campaign and launched an independent expenditure campaign that is supporting her.

She said she believes rank-and-file employees “are doing enough,” a conclusion at odds with the county’s independent, citizen-led pension review panel, which called for all county employees to contribute more toward their retirement plans.

But cutting take-home pay to cover pension costs could hurt the lowest-paid workers, Evans said.

“We have to look at the fact that we will lose quality, experienced employees if we don’t compensate them fairly so they can afford to live here,” she added. “It’s a very valid concern that the cost of living in Sonoma County has skyrocketed over the past few years and county employees took substantial cuts.”

Long-term, Evans characterized the county’s pension costs as manageable.

“If you look at the entire liability all at once today, it looks daunting,” she said. “But if you spread it out over time, it looks doable. The responsible thing to do as an elected official is pay that off over time.”

Hopkins, an organic farmer making her first bid for public office, called the county’s escalating pension costs a “crisis.” She said she is in favor of seeking greater employee contributions toward retirement plans.

“That does seem to be a very important step going forward. It certainly looks like the system is not sustainable,” Hopkins said. “Think about what would happen if costs continued on this trajectory.”

Hopkins, who was endorsed this week by primary election rival Tom Lynch, a prominent pension overhaul advocate, acknowledged that such a move could lead some employees to leave county employment. Such compromises may be called for, she indicated.

“No one is suggesting that we go after this with an ax,” she said. “We all want to ensure fair wages, but we want to make sure we aren’t making promises we can’t keep or promises that are going to prohibit the next generation from providing essential services to our community.”

She also said supervisors need to focus on increasing transparency on pension costs in the future, as they rise and fall.

“We need to get this situation under control,” Hopkins said. “I think oversight is going to be key to solving this problem.”

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 707-526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.