Ninety-eight retirees in the Sonoma County pension system get more than $100,000 in annual pension payments, including three who receive more than $200,000, according to records released Wednesday by the retirement association.
The top pensioner is Rod Dole, the recently retired county auditor-controller-treasurer-tax collector. He gets $254,625 annually, or more than $21,000 per month. Dole's 35 years with the county included 26 years as the chief financial officer.
Second is retired Sheriff Bill Cogbill, who receives $239,311, or nearly $20,000 per month. Cogbill served two terms in elected office and worked for the county for more than 32 years.
Other retirees in the top five are former county administrator Mike Chrystal, who receives $209,862 annually; former county clerk Eeve Lewis, $182,102; and former county public works director David Knight, $182,024.
The pension figures, which were made public for the first time as a result of a lawsuit filed by The Press Democrat, show what some say are the ballooning payments of a system that taxpayers are propping up at the expense of other public services.
(Click here to browse the pension records)
"The public should be concerned. This level of benefits is unsustainable," said Bob Andrews, the former owner of a benefits consulting firm who this year served on the city of Santa Rosa's Pension Reform Task Force.
Stock market losses plus salary and benefit increases in the past decade have forced the county, like many other local and state governments, to pour millions more into its retirement fund to cover pension obligations. Unfunded obligations now total $249 million, according to actuarial reports prepared for the county retirement association.
The higher contributions by taxpayers include the county's sale last year of about $290 million in bonds, a move that doubled the county's pension debt.
The newly released records, while showing that the majority of county retirees earn pensions of $30,000 or less, are likely to add still more fuel to the fire.
"It's no secret that we have to modify the way in which we look at our retirement system," said Efren Carrillo, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors. He cautioned that the records were just a "snapshot" of the county's retirement costs.
But he added: "I would agree that what we have now is not sustainable long-term."
The board of the Sonoma County Employees' Retirement Association reversed years of past practice by releasing the list of payments made to 3,916 retired county and special-district workers and their beneficiaries. The disclosure was ordered by a Sonoma County judge and upheld by a state appellate court after The Press Democrat sued last year for access to the records.
The data covers monthly pension payments through August.
It shows some of the top public retirees represented by SCERA make more in retirement than they did while working.
That list includes both Dole and Cogbill, whose 2010 county earnings, including salary, car and cash allowances, totalled $221,093 and $231,366, respectively. It also includes Chrystal, a 31-year county employee who retired in 2004 with a salary of about $180,000.
Dole, 59, and Cogbill, 58, did not return calls for comment Wednesday. Chrystal, 69, who along with Dole served on the county retirement board, declined to comment.
The records also show a wide disparity among what retirees earn. The top pension was more than 11 times the median annual pension, which is $22,552, and nearly nine times the average of $29,761.
About 64 percent of the retirees earn below the average pension, while about 36 percent earn more. The lowest annual payment was about $124 annually.
The records include county workers who have worked more than 30 years down to those who have worked five years, the minimum term to be eligible for retirement benefits.
The records appear to confirm a long-suspected trend: that career employees who've retired since benefit formulas were enhanced beginning seven years ago are helping fuel a rapid escalation in pension-system financial burdens. The average pension for retirees in 2009, according to SCERA, was $42,000, 69 percent more than the average for all retirees in the system.
Those at the top of county government are taking home the highest payments, receiving far more than their equally tenured predecessors. For example, Cogbill's annual pension is nearly 70 percent larger than the pension earned by his predecessor, former Sheriff Jim Piccinini, who served five years in office and 27 years total with the county before retiring in 2003.
Of the top 10 county pensioners, all are elected or appointed department heads, with the exception of Linda Suvoy, the former assistant sheriff and Larry Scoufos, the former assistant district attorney.
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