Free Republic

According to Paraday’s own calculation of payment due after retirement — which included three unused personal days, 532 unused sick days and 350 unused vacation days multiplied by his nearly $2,000 per diem rate — the district owed him $1,757,229.45, documents show. Paraday allegedly permitted himself to accumulate compensatory time without limit for any day in which he worked more than eight hours, despite his contract not allowing for the accrual or use of comp time. Since fiscal year 2006, when he started as superintendent, Paraday had used 2,484.65 hours of comp time, or the equivalent of 310 days, records...

CRAIG BOWEN'S SALARY during his final year as chief of the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District was about $221,000 a year. So how did he end up retiring in December with a tax-advantaged annual pension of $284,000? The answer provides an amazing case study that highlights problems with public employee compensation and reveals tricks that allow workers to spike their pensions at the expense of their fellow employees and taxpayers. The Bowen story has some similarities to the case I examined last month of Peter Nowicki, the chief of the Moraga Orinda Fire District who was able to turn...

Last August, when the Orange County Board of Supervisors was considering a union-sponsored measure to significantly increase pensions for county employees, Treasurer John Moorlach argued that the assumptions underlying the proposal were flawed and that the plan would soon cause a crisis that could rival the financial mess created by the 1994 county bankruptcy. Others, including the Register Editorial Page and the Orange County Taxpayers Association, likewise warned against approving the deal, especially against the provision that would grant 62 percent pension increases retroactively to current county employees. Supervisors Bill Campbell, Jim Silva and Tom Wilson voted in favor of...