CFFR’s president Marcia Fritz was on the CBS Evening News again last night. Here are the segment’s opening comments:
When the angry citizens of Bell, California, forced their outrageously overpaid city manager and police chief to resign, it may be the best thing that ever happened to the two. Consider the pension now due city manager Robert Rizzo.
“His lifetime pension will be roughly $30 million,” said Marcia Fritz of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.
And the pension due police chief Randy Adams.
“His lifetime pension will be more like $15 to $17 million,” said Fritz.
But it’s taxpayers in other cities who will be shelling out for these lavish pensions because in California every city or county an employee worked for has to pick up a portion of the pension. And the pension is based on the final year’s salary alone, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.
For more, read the entire transcript here or watch the video below:
CFFR’s founder and first president Keith Richman died Friday night at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles with his wife, Suzan, and family at his side after an extended battle with brain cancer. A resident of the San Fernando Valley, he was a three-term California Assemblyman and an active physician, philanthropist and pension reform advocate. He was 56.
CFFR’s president Marcia Fritz will be speaking this Sunday at the 2010 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, a five-day international event that includes a two-day U.S. Conference on Initiative and Referendum. The event will be held in San Francisco at the UC Hastings College of Law.
Fritz will be participating in a panel titled “Smart Detour or Dead End: Does Initiative & Referendum Provide a Path to Advance Your Agenda?” moderated by Paul Elias of the Associated Press. Other panelists will be: Eric Ehst, Arizona Clean Elections Institute; Rob Kampia, Marijuana Policy Project; Steven Hill, on Instant Runoff Voting; Tim Mooney, Silver Bullet Inc and Save Our Secret Ballot,Nevada; Tim Eyman, Voters Want More Choices, Washington; and Jung-OK Lee, Korea Democracy Foundation.
To get more information on the conference, click here. To see the complete schedule and get information on registration, click here.
CFFR’s president Marcia Fritz appeared on NBC Nightly News last night commenting on the lavish pensions that will be awaiting the highly-paid officials of the City of Bell when they retire:
Pension data supplied by Marcia was also used by the CBS Evening News. CFFR was credited in the tagline under the info, which appears about halfway through the segment.
CFFR’s vice president Jack Dean appeared Sunday on the weekly public affairs show News Conference hosted by veteran KNBC reporter Conan Nolan. The show airs on Channel 4 in the Los Angeles market immediately following NBC’s Meet the Press. Appearing on the segment prior to Dean was former California governor Gray Davis, who signed the pension-boosting SB400 into law in 1999.
Here’s another good story — this time from KNBC-TV Channel 4 — that details the huge pensions involved in the Bell brouhaha using calculations provided by Marcia Fritz, president of CFFR.
The pay and pension brouhaha in the City of Bell kept CFFR’s president Marcia Fritz and vice president Jack Dean busy during the past week dealing with media. Marcia was instrumental in calculating and providing projected pension costs to the media, which helped to shift the focus from exorbitant salaries alone to long-term pension obligations as well. If Bell city manager Robert Rizzo retires and lives another 30 years, he could collect about $30,000,000 over the life of his pension.
Here’s a good summary of the situation reported by Rebecca Hall on KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles:
CFFR has won another court victory on disclosure of public employee pension information.
On Wednesday, the judge in the case California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility v. Orange County Retirement System entered an order concluding that OCERS must provide to CFFR the retiree names, gross retirement amounts, and an identification of the prior public employer of each retiree.
The order by Orange County Superior Court Judge Luis Rodriquez is similar to orders entered in previous lawsuits on this issue in Contra Costa County and Stanislaus County. All three have concluded that the requested records are public.
To read or download the court order click here, and for more background on the Orange County case click here. To read about the Contra Costa County case, click here or here.
by Jon Coupal President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Some days I really love my job! On April 15 of this year I got a “two-fer.”
First, I got to speak to nearly 10,000 tax protesters in front of the Capitol, who were exercising their right to tell lawmakers they are not getting good value for the excessive taxes they pay. And second, in front of these patriots, I had the privilege of presenting the “Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Taxfighter of the Year” award to Marcia Fritz, the president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.
We make this award annually to honor someone in our state who has worked tirelessly on behalf of taxpayers. Often the recipient goes little noticed because they focus on the work at hand, not on any publicity it may bring.
This year, I am happy to say, we found many who deserved the award, but first among equals is Marcia Fritz for her tireless work promoting reform of California’s out-of-control government employee pension system. She recognizes that there is no greater issue facing the fiscal health of our state because, without reform, the taxpayer obligation to support pensions will substantially reduce government’s ability to provide basic services while radically increasing the burden on already beleaguered taxpayers.
Marcia’s efforts to raise awareness have placed this issue on the radar of every policymaker in the state and for this, taxpayers owe her a tremendous “Thank You!”
The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility has updated its CalPERS $100,000 Pension Clubsearchable database, and the list has increased in size by almost 50% — to over 9,100 members — compared to just a little over a year ago.
“The majority of new $100K Club members are public safety workers,” says Marcia Fritz, president of CFFR. “City budgets are being strained to keep more cops on the street — easy street.”
The updated elite club list now includes 330 retired state prison guards, 300 retired CHP officers, 175 retired state firefighters, and 90 retired DOJ agents.
Barron’s cover story this week by Jonathan R. Laing titled “The $2 Trillion Hole” is an excellent overview of the nation’s escalating public pension disaster. “Promised pensions benefits for public-sector employees represent a massive overhang that threatens the financial future of many cities and states,” states the teaser paragraph. You can read the article here.
CFFR’s president Marcia Fritz appeared on CNN this morning discussing the growing public pension crisis facing our nation’s cities and states. She was interviewed by correspondent Carol Costello.
The story aired on the network’s American Morning show which is broadcast weekdays from 3-6 am Pacific Time. Most Californians were probably still sleeping when the segment aired, but fortunately it was captured on video:
The text version of this story is available on the CNN site here.
The Contra Costa County Retirement Board took up the issue of pension ’spiking’ at its meeting Monday. CFFR’s president Marcia Fritz participated and was interviewed in this report by Laura Anthony of San Francisco’s KGO-TV. Read the accompanying news story here.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the Legislative Analyst’s Office has completed its analyses of the two pension reform initiatives that CFFR plans to place on the 2010 ballot in California. You can read the two fiscal impact reports by clicking here and here.
CFFR’s president Marcia Fritz was interviewed after Governor Schwarzenegger’s “State of the State” address yesterday by reporter Rick Boone of KTXL-TV (Channel 40) in Sacramento. Here’s the report:
CFFR’s founder and first president Keith Richman died Friday night at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles with his wife, Suzan, and family at his side after an extended battle with brain cancer. A resident of the San Fernando Valley, he was a three-term California Assemblyman and an active physician, philanthropist and pension reform advocate. He was 56.
The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility has updated its CalPERS $100,000 Pension Club 
