Baca Sues to Delay Pension of $142,000

The county’s highest-paid elected official doesn’t want a penny more for now, thank you.

So, Sheriff Lee Baca is suing Los Angeles County to avoid being paid about $142,000 a year in retirement benefits on top of his $207,000 annual salary.

The complicated case stems from Baca’s resignation as a sheriff’s chief nearly three years ago. He resigned in mid-1998 to run for the department’s top job and was elected in November that year.

The problem? The county considers the sheriff to be a new employee who is owed his retirement benefits. But Baca, who joined the department in 1965, doesn’t want them at the moment.

“I don’t want to be a double dipper,” Baca said Monday. “I just don’t think it’s prudent or wise for the taxpayers of Los Angeles County to know that a public official has that much income that is unnecessary.”

If Baca had resigned and then was reinstated as an employee, a superior could have requested that his benefits be held until his retirement as sheriff. But because as sheriff he has no superior, there is no one to reinstate him, county officials said.

Still, if Baca wins his lawsuit, his pension could eventually be boosted by about $50,000 a year--or more--because he would retire as sheriff rather than a chief.

So, in the end, the sheriff could gain even more.

Now that makes sense.