California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer asked the state's biggest pension plan to report the 100 highest state and local government salaries each year to help prevent pay abuses, citing the scandal in Bell, the Los Angeles suburb that paid its city manager almost $800,000 a year.
The proposal follows an uproar over pay rates for some Bell officials, including Robert Rizzo, who resigned as chief administrative officer on July 22 after a Los Angeles Times report detailing his salary.
The $211.4 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, oversees benefits for some Bell employees. In 2006, a 47% one-year jump in Mr. Rizzo's pay was accepted by the fund after city executives justified it by citing similar increases to a number of high-level workers at the same time. State law allows salary increases for groups or classes.
In a statement Wednesday, Mr. Lockyer said, “These recommendations have a simple goal: to help ensure taxpayers know how much they're paying the folks who work for them, and how those payments affect their obligation to fund retirement benefits for those employees.”
CalPERS said Aug. 6 that it was suspending the pension benefits of the Bell officials who are under investigation.
