Supes’ Show: Farce or Tragedy?

The financial antics of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors sometimes seem little more than a series of cynical jokes. If the supervisors were merely bad comedians on a television show, you could change the channel or turn off the set, none the poorer. Unfortunately, in this county “The Supes” are just about the only show in town.

Consider the strange episode of the hidden pension boost. Tuesday the board voted merely to study a proposal by freshman Supervisor Gloria Molina to ditch a backdoor effort to boost the pensions of county employees. Technical pension rules now in force would particularly hike the retirement pay of hundreds of high-ranking county officials--at the cost to taxpayers of as much as $50 million a year. The taxpayer-funded improvements in county fringe benefits had been added with little public discussion and no study of the financial impact. Now that the glare of negative publicity is shining brightly, the board voted Tuesday to have two county commissions study the pension rules and their fiscal impact. That’s OK--except that’s what should have happened before the county made pension changes that resulted in 19% retirement pay hikes to top county executives.

While county officials claim an obscure state law “forced” them to add certain benefits to pension calculations, state legislators contend that the county distorted the intention of state law. Legislation is needed to correct and clarify the law so that it can no longer be used as an excuse to make questionable deals without public accountability.

Speaking of accountability, there may have been a small victory Tuesday. Staff writers Richard Simon and Frederick M. Muir reported this week that L.A. County also spent nearly $100 million during the last three years to defend and resolve malpractice cases--without any review by elected officials. Unlike other major metropolitan counties, where elected bodies approve major settlements, L.A. County has been leaving this crucial work to bureaucrats. Both Molina and Supervisor Deane Dana proposed changes that would subject county malpractice litigation to board scrutiny.

We can hope it’s a step toward ending the board’s bad running joke with the public. And let’s hope the strange episode of the pension hikes ends definitively too.