Despite Riverside County's pension reforms, about 380 attorneys have figured out a way to preserve an extra bump in pension benefits that has been, but is no longer, available to about 5,000 county employees.

Until recently, retiring attorneys, law enforcement officers, department heads, managers, county supervisors and others have drawn pensions nearly matching their pay ---- if they put in a full 30 years with the county.

For starters, working three decades entitled them to 90 percent of their highest single-year salary...

Many of California's biggest local governments spend an average of 10 cents of every dollar covering pension costs, according to a study of the largest independent pension plans released Tuesday.

The study, by Stanford professor and former Assemblyman Joe Nation and a junior at the school who is a member of a nonprofit that studies California governance, examines plans for cities and counties that do not rely on the state's largest public pension group, CalPERS. They include the city and county of Los Angeles, the cities of Fresno, San Jose, San Francisco and San Diego, and other jurisdictions. The pension plan unveiled by Gov. Jerry Brown last year is intended to change these plans, as well as thousands of other local ones run by CalPERS...

A conservative group announced Wednesday that it was suspending its campaign to put public employee pension reform on the November ballot.

Dan Pellissier, president of California Pension Reform, said his group could not raise enough money to mount a petition-signature drive. A successful drive typically requires at least $2 million.

He blamed unfavorable language issued by the office of Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat, which he said undermined the effort even though pension reform is popular with Californians...

Gov. Jerry Brown has sent language for his 12-point pension reform plan to the Legislature's Conference Committee on Public Employee Pensions.

The proposals are divided into two groups. The constitutional amendment Brown offered broadly outlines the pension changes more narrowly defined in the language to change state law. The governor's plan won't go forward without two-thirds of the Legislature voting to put the constitutional changes on the Nov. 6 ballot, which would then need voter approval from a majority....

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that the Legislature will consider some sort of pension reform bill this session, and he didn't rule out sending a hybrid plan for new hires to Gov. Jerry Brown for a signature.

The Sacramento Democrat talked at length about pensions during a morning meeting with the Capitol press corps on Thursday. The Bee's Torey Van Oot was there and passed this six-minute audio file from the event.

(Warning: To hear the file, you'll need software that plays m4a files, such as RealPlayer or QuickTime. The recording is clear but low-volume, so turn up the sound on your listening device.)...

Members of a conference committee charged with crafting comprehensive pension-reform legislation this year urged Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday to quickly provide full details on how he envisions his proposed reforms would work.

"The public is starting to question if this committee is going to accomplish anything," said Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel. "We need to prove to the public that we are very, very serious about moving forward with pension reform."

She urged the Brown administration to quickly provide the committee with proposed legislative language that would detail his proposals on reform for public employee pensions...

Governor Jindal unveiled a dramatic redesign of the state employee retirement plan. The Governor, in three parts, tries to help the state dig itself out of an $18 billion hole. No all state workers are on board.

"Louisiana taxpayers are spending nearly $2 billion just this year in state retirement," said Jindal.

He called the state's current retirement system irresponsible, pointing to out of control costs that are impacting what he calls critical investments in priority areas; like classrooms and healthcare...

A joint Senate/Assembly conference committee will hold its third (ho-hum) informational hearing today on the 12-point pension reform plan that Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled with such fanfare last October. Don't expect anything to come of it. So far, a lot of talk has emerged but no pension bill. Efforts to substantially reduce state pension obligations are a sham in this Legislature, and most people who work in the Capitol know that.

A conference committee was formed to produce a reform package, but after three months, no author has emerged willing to champion the governor's proposal and no language has been drafted that would give substance to the modest plan Brown outlined...

In talking to state legislators, there appears to be a willingness to address a fresh concern with the New Jersey public pension system.

News reporter Lauren Taniguchi has written stories the last two Sundays about public employees retiring, collecting pensions and then getting new public jobs. Labeled “double-dipping” by critics, the practice amounts to two hefty public paychecks for many of these individuals.

It’s a practice our state cannot afford and one that should be ended....

The president of San Bernardino County's most powerful labor union announced Tuesday it is bankrolling an initiative to reduce county supervisors' jobs to part-time status.

The announcement by Laren Leichliter, president of the San Bernardino County Safety Employees Benefit Association, or SEBA, came hours after he appeared before the Board of Supervisors to protest pension reforms proposed by Supervisors Janice Rutherford and Gary Ovitt.

On a narrow vote, the board authorized county counsel to draft a ballot measure requiring any proposed pension increases for county employees be put to a vote by taxpayers....