Few politicians or government officials publicly oppose transparency in government. After all, transparency isn’t just about information; it’s a tangible acknowledgment that government officials work for citizens, not the other way around. Still, there’s a big difference between mouthing support for transparency and actually fulfilling public records requests as required by California’s Public Records Act. TransparentCalifornia.com,...

Overlooked in the Pacific Grove government employee pension reform discussions is that employees and retirees are real people. In Rhode Island, many retirees who had been promised a modest $25,000-per-year retirement had that sum reduced to $10,000 per year. Their plight is tragic. The discussions in Pacific Grove lump employees and retirees together. The clerk...

The Los Angeles 2020 Commission studied among other things the sorry state of LA’s pension mess. In a case of can-kicking extraordinaire, its recommendation was to appoint another commission to further study the problem. Please consider Report Finds Los Angeles at Risk of Decline  A scathing verdict on Los Angeles’s civic health that was delivered in a one-two...

“The AFT will be looking more closely at those who are supporting the dismantling of defined benefit plans at the state and municipal level.” –  Ranking Asset Managers, A Retirement Security Report on Money Managers for Pension Fund Trustees, March 5, 2014 As reported in a Washington Examiner editorial on April 4th, the American Federation...