Pension Reform Receives Court Backing

Those interested in Orange County government accountability and pension reform won a legal battle Wednesday.

In a ruling over a petition filed in December 2009 by the California Foundation For Fiscal Responsibility vs. the Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS), the Superior Court of Orange County ordered the OCERS to disclose “…gross amount paid to the payee member, the name of the payee, and the identification of the prior public employer of the named payee and no other information contained in the records OCRES.”

The presiding judge, Hon. Luis Rodriguez, says in his ruling, “Individuals must have access to government files to hold governments accountable for their actions. Personal embarrassment is outweighed by the strong public policy supporting transparency in government and the strong public interest in knowing how it spends its money ‘to expose corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism.’”

This ruling is consistent with the premise that government can only be held accountable when there is transparency. Without transparency, corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism cannot be identified, much less routed out. When I read those pervasive flaws outlined by the court, I immediately thought of Tom Daly, Annie Mezzacappa (covering for Sidhu), Linda Andal (covering for Sidhu), Bryn Morley (covering for Sidhu), the OC Children and Families Commission (Cunningham, et al), the OC DA Chief of Staff Susan Schroeder, appointed OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, SAPD Chief Paul Walters, and the public employee unions just to name a few. All of those people seem to fall under one of those categories (corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice, favoritism) that the court has recognized in the ruling. It is up to the public to police our government and Judge Luis Rodriguez seems to agree.

Case Number: 30-2009-00330855-CU-WM-CJC