16 O.C. Officials Found to Have Overstated Pay : Pensions: State auditors, however, see no evidence that they manipulated the system to boost benefits.

State auditors on Friday released the names of 16 retired Huntington Beach officials--including Councilman Earle Robitaille--who the auditors say are collecting pensions based on artificially inflated salaries.

According to an audit document released to The Times, Robitaille’s salary was overstated to the state’s Public Employees Retirement System by nearly $12,000 because it improperly included his car allowance and unused vacation days when he retired as the Huntington Beach police chief in 1987.

Exaggerated salaries were also discovered for other high-ranking officials who the auditors say improperly claimed their car allowances, expense accounts and vacation days. City officials say there was nothing improper about their reporting procedures.

Among the other officials singled out by the audit were former city administrators Charles Thompson and Paul E. Cook. Except for Robitaille, all the other officials have left the city government; after retiring from his post as police chief, Robitaille went on to win a seat on the City Council.

The document was compiled by state Controller Gray Davis’ office as part of an audit that uncovered widespread “pension-spiking” among former city officials from Huntington Beach, Anaheim and six Los Angeles County cities. Based on that audit, Davis has said that officials in those cities will receive a total of $2 million more than they deserve over the life of their pensions.

It was not clear Friday how much of that money would be attributable to exaggerated claims from Huntington Beach.

Davis used the audit to call a press conference this week and denounce public officials who “pig out” by inflating their salaries as reported to the $63-billion Public Employees Retirement System.

City officials on Friday said they were unprepared to discuss specifics contained in the audit, but they stressed that all of the salaries were reported according to state and federal guidelines.

David Villella, the city’s finance director, said he thought Davis--who is running for a U.S. Senate seat this year--was “sensationalizing” what essentially is a disagreement over “accounting technicalities.”

Robitaille, who was elected to the council in November, 1990, agreed. “There is not an overpayment,” he said.

“Anything that Gray Davis said I wouldn’t touch with a 20-foot pole. He’s part of old Gov. Moonbeam’s group of crazies up there,” said the former police chief, referring to Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. and his Administration.

But David Sullivan, president of the 1,000-member Huntington Beach Tomorrow, sharply criticized Robitaille, adding that the group may demand the councilman’s resignation.

“Mr. Robitaille is the worst offender,” said Sullivan. “His credibility as a councilman is irreparably damaged.”

When it was released late last month, the controller’s audit did not identify the officials in Huntington Beach or elsewhere. But Davis aides confirmed this week that some of the most extreme examples came from Orange County, including former Anaheim City Manager William O. Talley and retired Huntington Beach Deputy City Atty. William S. Amsbary.

The audit claimed that Amsbary’s last-year salary was improperly increased by $23,363--or 35%--for pension computations. In Amsbary’s case, however, the increase was not due to car allowances or other expenses, but rather to a “retirement incentive” given to him by the City Council.

On Friday, the controller’s office disclosed the rest of the names when it released a table compiled by auditors showing the other 15 Huntington Beach officials with disputed salaries.

In making the disclosure, controller spokesman Edd Fong stressed that auditors found no evidence that those listed had “manipulated the system to receive higher pension benefits.”

Fong instead blamed the inflated salaries on the city, which “erroneously” agreed under contract with its employees to lump in car allowances, expense accounts, vacation days and benefits as part of the last-year salary, the figure upon which pensions are calculated.

In Robitaille’s case, the document shows that the city improperly counted $3,553 in car allowance and $8,406 in vacation days when it reported his salary at retirement as $97,219, instead of the $85,259 it should have been.

PERS figures show that, based on the larger figure, he receives $5,217 a month in pension money. He is also paid $175 monthly as a council member.

Robitaille said he converted his car allowance into straight salary shortly before he retired because of an IRS ruling that treated the perk as taxable income. He also said he consulted with PERS three times about how to calculate his salary before finally retiring in 1987--three months before he was due to get a raise.

“I’m not stupid,” said Robitaille. “If I wanted to spike my retirement, I could have done that very easily. I could have stayed until July. I would have had a significant raise. But I elected not to.”

Former City Administrator Thompson made the same point Friday when told he was listed with an inflated salary. Auditors said he improperly claimed nearly $10,500 in car allowances, expense accounts and vacation time to inflate his salary to $110,000.

“I deliberately told the council I didn’t want (a pay increase) because it would look like I was inflating,” said Thompson, who left the city in 1987.

Others listed included Cook, whose salary of $136,800 contained $8,173 in disputed expenses; former City Treasurer Warren Hall, who retired in 1987 and claimed nearly $7,800 in disputed salary, and former Water Distribution Supervisor Lyman McCray, whose salary at the time of his 1990 retirement included nearly $6,300 in expenses identified by the controller. None of those four could be reached for comment Friday.

The Sweetened 16

The state says these 16 retired Huntington Beach officials are collecting pensions larger than they should because of artificially inflated salaries.

Former Position * Disputed Compensation Melvin Bowman director of community services $4,451 Lyman McCray supervisor of water distribution $6,281 Robert Morrison police lieutenant $3,680 James Palin deputy city adminstrator $5,115 Grover Payne chief of police $4,234 Raymond Picard fire chief $5,094 Earle Robitaille chief of police $11,960 Charles Thompson city administrator $10,478 Paul Cook city administrator $8,173 Glen Godfrey deputy dir., community development $6,234 Warren Hall city treasurer $7,881 Bobby Allen inspector of water resources $1,296 Stanley Farber civil engineer assistant $1,621 Norman Mayer chief plumbing inspector $4,667 Bill Waddell civil engineer assistant $1,557 William S. Amsbary assistant city attorney $23,363 TOTAL $106,085

*Money the controller’s office says these officials were not entitled to use as a base for establishing the size of their pensions.

Source: state controller