Being CalPERS means never having to say you’re sorry

Jan. 20, 2013

By Chris Reed

So CalPERS is found to allow ridiculous, outrageous double-dipping by salaried employees that boosts their pay (and probably their pensions), and faces sharp criticism. So when the giant pension fund responds, does it do so with an apology? Of course not, according to the Sacramento Bee:

“CalPERS has decided to immediately suspend a program that allowed some salaried managers to moonlight in-house and take hourly pay, saying that the controversy surrounding the practice has become a ‘significant distraction’ to its work.”

If CalPERS wouldn’t apologize for the propaganda it put out to get SB 400 passed in 1999, starting the retroactive pension spiking that is now destroying local governments, why would it apologize for shady behavior now?

If CalPERS’ upper ranks for years engaged in gross corruption even as CalPERS offered itself up as a moral force for socially conscious investing, why would it notice the dissonance between the high opinion the agency has of itself and the way it looks to the rest of the world now?

If CalPERS thought it was an appropriate use of public funds to build itself a 560,000-square-foot, $153 million tribute to its glory and importance, why would it be expected to behave prudently with taxpayer money now?

If CalPERS reacted to a factual analysis questioning its investment history by having its high-paid lead flack engage in a juvenile tirade against the Bloomberg reporter who wrote the analysis, why would it be classy now?

If CalPERS spent years denying the pension crisis was real, why would it show any common sense now?

CalPERS’ massive headquarters is probably visible from outer space. But so is its bizarre combination of self-congratulation, incompetence and obliviousness.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System: Always assume the worst. Don’t let any “significant distraction” prevent you from understanding that it’s the CalPERS way.