If only we could all double-dip

FLO MARTIN

EDITOR’S NOTE: This week we begin a weekly Forum page feature called

My Turn. Each Tuesday, readers will have an opportunity to sound off

on any issue they feel strongly about. If you are interested in

submitting commentaries for My Turn, send them via e-mail to

[email protected] or mail to 330 W. Bay Street, Costa Mesa,

92627.

Coast Community College District trustee Armando Ruiz is fighting

back, and rightly so (“Trustee Fires Back at Critics,” Sept. 16). The

pension he’s entitled to by law is nobody’s business -- not yours,

not mine and not fellow trustee Jerry Patterson’s.

I take issue with the newspaper reports that say Ruiz is qualified

for a sizable increase in his retirement benefits because of a

“glitch” in state law. I don’t know which law, exactly, but who

really cares? The law is the law, and that’s no “glitch,” correct?

I mean, don’t the state legislators always do the right thing by

their constituents, especially constituents like Ruiz? Don’t the

folks up in Sacramento make sure that “glitches” get red-lined before

the bills are signed into law? And doesn’t the governor’s office

examine and evaluate the paperwork before their boss signs on the

dotted line?

Let’s take a closer look at public servants’ retirement benefits,

specifically our state legislators.

The California Public Employees Retirement System website showed

no concrete statistics that could shed more light. Apparently, such

figures are a deep, dark secret. I did find, however, that the

retirement system is in serious financial trouble. The retirement

fund needs a $3-billion infusion from taxpayers this year, more than

double what it got last year. Yes, the stock market plunge has

contributed to this shortfall but so has greed on the part of people

like local school board trustees.

Luckily, the feds have been a bit more accommodating with concrete

information.

This writer’s pension through the State Teachers’ Retirement

System, with 26 years of service at age 62, is about half the $84,645

of members of the federal Civil Service Retirement System, who were

on the high end of the salary scale when they retired in December

2004. And, currently, that’s the only retirement I have. Maybe I

should run for public office and join the pigs at the trough.

Trustee Ruiz has every right to double-dip. What’s the beef ... or

should I say, pork? Everyone does. Most, if not all, government

employees do exactly that. We can start with members of city

government committees, with city public directors, with board members

of public utilities, with board members of our county services, with

local and state legislators, yada yada yada, all the way up to the

top.

And we’re not talking just about retirement benefits costing a

bundle. Retirement money is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re also

thinking about the huge sums of money the California taxpayer is

handing over for the double-dipping that is going on with the health

insurance coverage for all these folks.

And, we’re talking medical insurance coverage for life. This

retired teacher’s medical benefits end in three years, at which time

I’ll join the ranks of the 40-plus-million Americans with no health

coverage at all.

So, everyone, just leave Ruiz alone. He’s doing what everyone else

is doing. When we’re talking money, let ethics be damned.

* FLO MARTIN is a Costa Mesa resident and faculty member at Cal

State Fullerton.