Public Pensions of Capitola Misleading

I'm Bog Begun, former Capitola City Council member, and through this blog, I will be discussing local political issues. 

Last Sunday's Sentinel featured an article, "Pain and Promise of Public Pensions," which highlighted the median pension of various agencies and included the Capitola mean pension at $42,608, Scotts Valley $33,677, Watsonville $28,519, city of Santa Cruz $25,174 and Santa Cruz County at $20,372.

This does not necessarily mean that an employee of Capitola who works a comparable length of time and at a comparable salary as an employee of Scotts Valley or Watsonville has a larger pension.

The mean pension is affected by the average salary, which is affected by the size of the higher-paid sworn police officers relative to the total Capitola work force. Capitola has the highest ratio of sworn police officers due to the proximity of the beach and 41st Avenue mall and shopping centers.

It is also affected by the longevity of the retiring personnel. Capitola is known as a very desirable place to work. Suppose one entity had a very high turnover of personnel, so high that no one would retire while working there. The mean pension would be very low.

Another important item is how much does the City pay for the pension fund and how much does the employee pay. Back in about 2005, the City's contract with the sworn police officers capped the percent of pay that the city would pay, with the rest to be paid by the employee. The pension system PERS is funded to 70% of liabilities from a low point of 60%. GAO recommends 80%. To get to 80% funding, the majority of funding will come from the employees and a much smaller amount from Capitola.