CalPERS board member’s ethics fines unpaid
California’s political watchdog agency may soon ask state tax officials or a court to seize funds from a state pension board member who has failed to pay two fines for ethics code violations.
Garnishing wages or placing a lien on future tax refunds of Priya Mathur, an eight-year veteran of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System board, are the next steps the Fair Political Practices Commission would take if she doesn’t pay $7,000 in fines, said Roman Porter, the agency’s executive director.
Porter did not set a deadline, saying only that action would occur “soon.”
By law, the commission also could seek a lien on her property.
The FPPC fined Mathur $3,000 on April 8 and an additional $4,000 on May 14 for failing to file on time her legally required personal statements of economic interest for 2007 and 2008. Submitting the documents is a routine obligation for more than 100,000 elected and appointed California officials and state government employees.
Mathur eventually submitted the 2007 document 21 months late and the 2008 report nine months late. Both stated that she had received no gifts or income that represented conflicts of interest with her duties at CalPERS.
Mathur did not respond to questions about paying the fines.
On May 17 when she was publicly reprimanded by her board colleagues for the filing lapses, Mathur said she was “sorry for the embarrassment I have caused CalPERS.”
She also stressed that she has “profound respect for the FPPC and the public trust it upholds and will comply with its finding, paying the fine within the next few weeks.”
The official censure by the board of a fellow member was the first in CalPERS’ 78-year history.
The incident, however, wasn’t Mathur’s first run-in with the FPPC. In 2006, she paid a $6,000 fine for not properly filing financial documents after her 2002 election to the CalPERS board.
Mathur’s troubles come at a tough time for the leaders of the $198-billion pension fund, the nation’s largest public retirement system. The fund, which provides benefits for 1.6 million active and retired workers and their families, is caught up in an influence-peddling scandal involving sales intermediaries, called placement agents. One such intermediary, former board member Alfred R. Villalobos, earned close to $50 million in commissions from investment managers for helping them land billion-dollar deals with CalPERS.
Villalobos and former CalPERS Chief Executive Federico Buenrostro Jr. are defendants in a CalPERS-related fraud suit brought by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown.
Mathur’s two most recent fines must be paid by the end of the year at the latest if she hopes to regain her leadership role on the 13-member CalPERS board.
Mathur’s chief supporter in her most recent reelection bid, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, said it was interested in paying Mathur’s fines if it can do so legally, said Willie Pelote Sr., the California political and legislative director. Mathur made a mistake that won’t be repeated, he said.
Last month, Mathur’s colleagues voted to punish her by stripping her chairmanship of the board’s Health Committee. The board also suspended Mathur’s official travel privileges until at least Dec. 1.
Mathur, 36, is a principal financial analyst with the Bay Area Rapid Transit District with an annual salary of $101,000. She already has secured a third four-year term on the CalPERS board. No one filed to run against her in the October election for the board slot representing local government agency workers.
