CalPERS board member faces third fine for failing to disclose financial interests on time

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, already under scrutiny for financial losses and allegations that its investment decisions were compromised by favoritism, may be getting another black eye — this one courtesy of board member Priya Mathur.

At its meeting Thursday, the state Fair Political Practices Commission will consider fining Mathur as much as $5,000 for failing to file her 2008 financial disclosure statement on time. Twice before in recent years she has been fined for not submitting the required statements.

The dollar amounts involved in Mathur’s disclosure may be small, but the violation raises troubling questions about the leadership of CalPERS, said Roman Porter, the FPPC’s executive director.

“You have to question the culture of disclosure in any organization where there are high-level individuals who consistently fail to file the proper reports,” he said.

Mathur did not return calls for comment. The 36-year-old financial analyst for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District has won election twice to a seat on the 13-member CalPERS board that is reserved for representatives of local government agencies.

As with more than 100,000 state employees, each board member is required to file annual statements of his or her financial interests so that potential conflicts of interest can be identified.

Four years ago, Mathur paid a $6,000 fine to settle commission claims that she hadn’t filed personal and campaign financial disclosure statements related to her first election to the CalPERS board in 2003. Last month the FPPC fined her $3,000 for failing to file her 2007 statement on time.

That $3,000 fine has yet to be paid, and the commission is seeking a judicial order to intercept Mathur’s tax refund, garnish her wages or put a lien on her property, Porter said.

“There has been a pattern of failing to disclose the appropriate information to the people of the state of California,” he said. “And there has been an unfortunate pattern of failing to communicate with the body responsible for making sure this information is reported.”

FPPC officials say Mathur has evaded efforts to serve her with legal notice of the latest violation, forcing process servers to give her the documents at a March 31 CalPERS meeting.

“Respondent completely failed to cooperate with the investigation or the procedural administration of the case, and caused the enforcement division to expend great effort and resources to serve her with each of the required notifications,” the commission said in a legal complaint.

Mathur filed both her 2007 and her 2008 statements in January, but the first was 21 months late and the second was nine months overdue. In the statements she said had no potential economic conflicts to report.

Her actions are adding to CalPERS’ woes as it struggles with allegations that some of its former officials used gifts and personal influence to direct billions of dollars in pension investments to outside money managers.

Last week, California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown filed a civil fraud lawsuit against former CalPERS Chief Executive Federico Buenrostro Jr. and former CalPERS board member Alfred R. Villalobos, saying they violated state business and securities laws. Villalobos has denied wrongdoing, and Buenrostro has not commented.

Mathur’s failure to file a timely statement “certainly doesn’t look good,” said Jessica Levinson, political reform director at the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles.

“CalPERS is under an umbrella of suspicion. The best thing that CalPERS can do is to be the most open and transparent organization as possible, just open the doors and say come look,” Levinson said.

Even so, Mathur’s bid for a third four-year term on the CalPERS board in an election this October has the support of a major public employees union.

Mathur’s service has been “outstanding in protecting the interest of members and retirees,” said Willie Pelote Sr., the political and legislative director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. But even he warned that good service is no excuse for a failure to abide by state financial disclosure laws.

“She screwed up. Now, she understands that you can’t ignore these things,” he said. “When something that should have been reported didn’t get reported, we have serious concerns.”

At CalPERS, Mathur chairs the Health Benefits Committee and sits on the Investment Committee.

Relations between Mathur and the FPPC, meanwhile, appear to have become testy.

Mathur, in the two cases this year, refused to acknowledge repeated attempts to contact her by telephone and certified mail, according to the commission.

Mathur also refused to sign for delivery of and accept a number of legal documents that the commission tried to serve on her.

Mathur is not the only member of the CalPERS board to run into trouble with the state’s political ethics watchdog.

Just before his retirement in January, former CalPERS board member Charles Valdes was hit with a $12,500 fine by the FPPC for taking campaign contributions in excess of state limits.

Valdes, who sat on the board for a quarter of a century, was identified in the attorney general’s lawsuit last week but was not named as a defendant. The suit alleged that Villalobos paid thousands of dollars to provide luxury, round-the-world travel for Valdes.

Mathur’s and Valdes’ issues with their financial statements suggest that there is a deeper problem with a lack of transparency at CalPERS, said the commission’s Porter.

marc.lifsher@latimes.com