COUNTYWIDE : Former Official’s Pension Takes a Cut

County retirement officials Monday reduced the pension check of a former San Juan Capistrano city attorney who had been incorrectly classified for more than three years as a full-time employee while he was only working part time.

James S. Okazaki apparently was listed as a regular full-time employee while he worked for the city’s Capistrano Valley Water District between 1984 and 1988, just after he retired as city attorney.

Okazaki was the third former San Juan Capistrano city official to have his retirement decreased by the Orange County Retirement Board. Former City Manager James S. Mocalis and his assistant, E. Phillip Hale, had their retirements cut in half two weeks ago. They allegedly had inflated their last year of pay with accumulated sick leave and vacation days, thereby doubling their retirement benefits.

Mocalis and Okazaki--once officials with the Laguna Niguel Community Services District--are also subjects of an Orange County Grand Jury investigation of a 1988 land transaction in which the public’s right to 96 acres of open space was deeded to a developer. Both have voluntarily testified before the jury recently.

Okazaki acknowledged in an earlier interview that he should not have accrued retirement benefits after 1984 when he left San Juan Capistrano to join the water district, a quasi city department overseen by the City Council. But he contended that it was a “bookkeeping thing,” explaining that he apparently had been listed in county records as a full-time employee after he switched to part time.

Okazaki said he received about $20,000 a year in retirement.

The nine-member Retirement Board voted unanimously to recalculate the number of years that Okazaki has in the retirement system and reduce his benefits accordingly.

His attorney, J. Gary Germann of Irvine, said Okazaki paid into the retirement system between 1984 and 1988 when he worked at the water district. He said Okazaki--who did not appear at the board’s meeting Monday--worked between 1977 and 1984 as a full-time city attorney and another seven years with the city as a contract employee, which did not count toward his retirement. Okazaki worked in the county counsel’s office for three years, which accrued toward his retirement.

“There will be a percentage reduction (in his retirement benefits) that they will figure out,” Germann said after the meeting. “Somehow it got reported as full time and should have been part time. It was a mistake by someone.”

Neither county retirement officials nor Germann could say how much Okazaki’s retirement would be reduced. Germann said the contributions made by the water district and Okazaki would have to be calculated to find the difference between what he received in retirement payments since he began drawing county pension checks in 1988.

Germann said Okazaki would repay what he was not entitled to.