Retirement Board Plans Gift Reform

The Orange County Retirement Board, criticized by some for accepting golf games, meals and other forms of largess from companies doing business with the pension system, plans to reform its gift policy, officials said Tuesday.

Though the scope of reforms has yet to be worked out, some board members said they favored reducing the maximum value of gifts they may receive from a single donor to a level below the state limit of $280 per year.

“I would feel comfortable about tightening the limit,” said Thomas Lightvoet, chairman of the pension board, which oversees the investments of more than 20,000 current and retired government workers.

Both county officials and some board members have called for changes in the gift policy. Board members and some top system administrators together receive thousands of dollars a year in food, concert tickets and other gifts from portfolio managers and other firms. Critics contend that the gifts create the appearance of a conflict of interest, noting that the county enacted a ban on all gifts several years ago. But some board members insist that dinners, golf outings and other activities they attend enable them to establish personal relationships with people who invest system funds.

County Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach, who also sits on the retirement board, expressed support for gift reforms but said they should probably stop short of an outright ban.

“There needs to be a balance,” Moorlach said. “But we cannot create the perception that we can be bought by a fancy dinner.”

A subcommittee is scheduled to craft a new gift policy over the next few weeks. The retirement board could vote on proposed reforms as early as March.

Also Tuesday, about 80 retirement system workers and representatives of the Orange County Employees Assn. demanded at the meeting that former administrator Mary-Jean Hackwood be fired. Some workers carried placards saying “Protect the System” and “We Demand Honesty.”

The board voted to demote Hackwood to portfolio manager last month after she was accused of abusing her authority by forcing employees to run personal errands such as picking up her mail from home and shuttling her to the airport.

The employees complained Tuesday that the board treated Hackwood with too much leniency, charging that any other system worker would have been fired.

“A manager who puts this system at such risk should be terminated,” said Frank Eley, an employee association representative.

The board plans to lease a separate office for Hackwood to minimize her contact with other employees. Board members have praised Hackwood’s management of the system’s $2.9-billion fund and said they didn’t want to lose her expertise. Hackwood has denied any wrongdoing.

On another issue, the board Tuesday backed away from its plan to build a new headquarters in the Woodbridge section of Irvine.

Moorlach and other county officials have criticized the proposal, saying it makes more sense to lease or buy an existing office building.

The board voted to suspend negotiations on the Irvine site. Instead, the county’s General Services Agency will look for a suitable government or private building which the system could buy or lease.

Lightvoet said the county search will give the board an opportunity to “rethink” the kind of building it wants and determine the type of investment it is comfortable with making.