Jurists Reject County Request on Pensions

An appellate court has denied the county’s request to halt retroactive pension payments to its retired workers, upholding a lower court’s ruling from earlier this week.

On Thursday, the 4th District Court of Appeals rejected the county’s request for an injunction on the payments, which range from $60 to $500 annually per retired county worker. On Monday, a Superior Court judge also denied the county’s request to halt the payments.

The county is challenging a February decision by the Orange County Retirement System board to grant $35 million in retroactive payments to 6,800 retired workers.

County lawyers had argued that those payments may be illegal and that the higher court must rule before more checks are sent out.

The retroactive payments are part of an October state Supreme Court ruling that mandated 20 counties throughout California pay employee pensions based on salaries and other perquisites such as car allowances and bonuses.

Orange County is the only county that included back payments to its retirees.

The funds will be financed by a $220-million return on investments that the retirement board collected last year. Still, county officials expect to spend at least $7 million this year to pay for benefits required by the Supreme Court decision.

“The court has affirmed that we are following the guidelines,” said Bruce Moore, a member of the retirement board. “This is certainly good news to retirees and active members of the system.” County officials were unavailable for comment.