Fired schools official questions pension data

A recently fired school administrator is alleging discrepancies in the way the Newport-Mesa Unified School District reports salaries to the state pension system.

It is the first time that John Caldecott has spoken publicly about the details of an internal complaint he has filed against Supt. Fred Navarro.

The school board fired Caldecott on Jan. 27, shortly after he requested that an Orange County Superior Court judge force Newport-Mesa to release documents related to the complaint. The court has not yet made a decision.

Caldecott, who spent 10 years as the district’s personnel director, released details of his complaint against Navarro to the Daily Pilot and Newport resident Sandy Asper, who moderates “On Point,” a collection of online video interviews with public officials and others of community interest.

“I think I was fired because the superintendent does not want me to ask any more questions or seek answers,” Caldecott said. “I’m going to pursue answers to the unresolved questions.”

After hearing the allegations Wednesday, district spokeswoman Laura Boss said only that the situation “is a personnel issue and an ongoing legal matter.”

Caldecott initially requested 94 pages of documents, including emails and board reports in October, but a school district attorney denied his request, stating that “the privacy rights of the employee outweighed public interest in the case,” according to the court filing.

Newport-Mesa is closed this week, and Navarro could not be reached for comment. He has declined to respond to questions about Caldecott in the past, citing the district’s practice of not commenting on personnel matters.

Caldecott made another public-records request this month, asking for several emails that he and Navarro had exchanged, as well as an email that alludes to an impending audit by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

While he was still an employee, Caldecott asked that the district hire an external auditor to study the accuracy of Newport-Mesa’s reporting to the pension system for management employees, but was denied.

“I sought a positive solution and resolution internally,” he said. “I was ignored.”

Caldecott then contacted the retirement system, but he said he is unsure whether his request is the reason officials there are conducting their audit.

Caldecott declined to give more specifics about his allegations of Newport-Mesa’s reporting discrepancies.

CalSTRS handles retirement benefits for more than 868,000 education employees statewide, with assets totaling more than $183 billion, according to the agency.

School districts are responsible for properly reporting how much an employee earns, figures that are ultimately used to calculate that employee’s monthly benefit upon retirement.

In 2011, CalSTRS created a Pension Abuse Hotline and Compensation Review Unit in an effort to curb pension spiking — the practice of increasing an employee’s pay in his or her last year of work to boost the person’s pension.

In connection with the Compensation Review Unit, the agency conducts school district audits to identify “employers who have provided inconsistent or accelerated pay increases, particularly during an employee’s final compensation period.”

In 2009-10, some 50 school district audits identified $1.7 million in overpaid monthly allowances, according to the agency’s website.

A spokesman for the retirement system said last week that audits are generally conducted every five years. Newport-Mesa was last audited in 2008.

To watch Asper’s interview with Caldecott, visit https://www.sandyasks.com.

— Nicole Knight Shine contributed to this report.