O.C. double-dippers rake in nearly a half million a year

O.C. double-dippers rake in nearly a half million a year
October 14th, 2009, 5:13 am · 61 Comments · posted by Jennifer Muir

There’s nothing like sticker shock.

That’s just what The Watchdog gets looking at the total amount of dinero county bigwigs like CEO Tom Mauk and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens collect each year.

When you add up the pensions they collect from their previous place of employment, and the salaries and benefits they accrue in O.C., they’re raking in nearly a half million bucks a piece. (More specifically, Hutchens earns $492,243 a year from her pension, salary and benefits, and Mauk gets $487,805. We’ll break down those figures later in this post.)

Mauk and Hutchens are among the other type of double-dippers working in Orange County. You might remember that the Watchdog wrote a couple weeks ago about Orange County employees who retire, start collecting their pensions, then come back to the county to work part-time.

At the time, many of you asked about double-dippers such as Hutchens and Mauk: People who simultaneously collect a pension check and paycheck because they’ve retired from one government agency, then gone to work for another. The Watchdog heard your whistle.hutchens

The practice is common among government employees with pension deals that allow them to retire young with nearly the same pay they made during their working years. And it presents prickly ethical questions for the agencies trying to fill their top leadership positions with the most qualified employees while also advocating for pension reform.

“People are gaming the system clearly,” says Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby. “But they’re not the ones at fault. The system is at fault. If we’re incentivizing people to retire early and get a pension, then incentivizing them to get a job with a full-time salary, it’s hard to blame them as individuals.”

Supervisor John Moorlach, the county’s resident pension watchdog, agrees.

“Double dippers aren’t necessarily bad people, it’s just the system has almost forced them to do it,” Moorlach says.

Moorlach says chipping away at changes to the pension system is the answer. He pointed to legislation the governor signed late Sunday night that establishes a second pension tier for many county employees, creating an older retirement age of 65 for folks in that tier.

Still, the Watchdog wanted to find out just how much double-dippers can make under the current system.

Here’s why we care: While many employees pay into their pension funds during their working years, they get a taxpayer-guaranteed check every month once they retire–even when the economy tanks and the pension funds no longer have enough cash to pay for all the pensions they’ve promised. In Orange County, the gap between the cost of funding pensions over the next few decades and the revenue set aside to cover those costs is $3.1 billion. The same situation is playing out across the state.

Double-dipping is a symptom of the broken system.

So, we looked at Hutchens and her two recent hires from Los Angeles: Assistant Sheriff Mike Hillman (pictured above) and Undersheriff John Scott. And we ran the names of top Orange County managers through The Register’s database of public retirees who are collecting $100,000 or more through the California Public Employees Retirement System. Mauk and the county’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Franz popped up.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department refused to provide pension figures for Hutchens and Scott. So the Watchdog asked if they’d like to volunteer how much they collect in pension. Hutchens offered up the amount she was paid in 2008. Scott refused.

(For the record, Scott earns a total of $313,298 a year from Orange County, including $108,624 that goes toward his second pension in Orange County’s system and $7,491 toward his 401A retirement account.)

Here’s a breakdown:

* Sheriff Sandra Hutchens earns a total of $354,236 per year from the county for her salary and benefits, including $115,669 that goes toward paying her pension in Orange County’s system, and another $16,638 toward her 401A retirement account. Meanwhile, in 2008, she collected $138,007 from the pension she earned working for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. That brings her total annual compensation to $492,243.

* County CEO Tom Mauk earns a total of $367,541 annually from the county, including $63,882 that goes toward funding his pension in Orange County’s system and $23,546 toward his 401A. Meanwhile, he collects $120,264.60 per year from the pension he earned working for the city of La Habra, bringing his total annual compensation to $487,805.60.

(Note: Figures for Mauk and Hutchens do not reflect the five percent cut to their base pay that they voluntarily took a couple months back.)

* Chief Financial Officer Robert Franz earns $290,038 per year from the county, including $57,288 that goes toward funding his Orange County pension and $12,027 for his 401A. Meanwhile, he collects $133,744.56 annually from the pension he earned while working for the city of Glendale. That brings his total annual compensation to $423,782.56.
* Assistant Sheriff Michael Hillman earns $302,438 a year from the county, including $102,967 that goes toward funding his Orange County pension and $7,101 for his 401A. Meanwhile, he collects $150,157 annually from the pension he earned while working for the Los Angeles Police Department. That brings his total annual compensation to $452,595.