Supplemental Information
Last update 6/13/2010.
This is a collection of memos and reports, videos and recorded audio, a list of key data sources used by
YourPublicMoney.Com, and reports from a Peer Review Group of financial professionals who reviewed our analysis and conclusions regarding Mendocino County's debt. Also are reports from the Mendocino County Grand Jury.
Most of the titles of items below are links. Most links will open a new window and leave this window on your screen. Close the new window when you're done with it.
Some items are not links; the underlying documents are not available on line. For these items we tell you where you can find the documents.
Our memos and reports are in the left column. Audio-Video, the Peer Group reports, and our Data Sources are in the right column. Scroll down to find the item you're looking for.
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Grand Jury Reports
The Mendocino County Grand Jury has produced three reports regarding Mendocino County's unfunded pension debt and the Mendocino County Employees Retirement Association (MCERA) in the past decade.
- 2010 Grand Jury Report - Unfunded Liability - Our Children's Inheritance: (6/7/10) The most recent Grand Jury report. ":MCERA neither reflect(s) realistic possibilities for financial growth, nor demonstrate(s) transparency in their reporting". " Mendocino County’s short term thinking has resulted in the real possibility of financial disaster including bankruptcy". "Major cuts in personnel, salaries and services are necessary ...". "Several past GJ reports ... have been ignored ... Current criticism by community members cannot be easily ignored. The questions raised need to be answered." "Communications with the public must be transparent and accurate". "Basic assumptions of MCERA need to be examined". "The citizens of Mendocino County need to hear truth, not rhetoric.". pdf file (140KB)
- 2006 Grand Jury Report - Dollars and Sense: a Report on Retirement Funding: (6/1/06) ":The decision by the BOS to retroactively, and without employee buy-in cost, reclassify Safety employees so as to give them higher-level benefit rates resulted in higher pension obligations.". "County financial officials have estimated that the total debt for retirement has peaked and should soon show a steady reduction.""(Recommendation 4) ... the BOS ensure that future employee benefits do not overburden the County with pension obligation debt." pdf file (399KB)
- 2003 Grand Jury Report - The Mendocino County Employees Retirement Association: (6/30/03) ":The Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability is troublesome both in terms of it’s growing magnitude as well as the complexity of the forces that have created it." "By continuing to carry an ongoing and increasing UAAL, the Board of Supervisors, whether intentional or not, is effectively subsidizing the County’s fiscal budget with monies that should have been allocated each year to adequately fund the Retirement Association." "while another Pension Obligation Bond would solve the Board of Supervisors funding problem in the near term, it is only a band-aid that does not address all the forces that are driving the UAAL ever higher. It should also be noted that in so doing, the County Board of Supervisors would, again, be shifting the financial burden for past (retirement fund) liabilities to future generations of taxpayers with no guarantee that accrued future benefits would be funded on a “pay as you go”, or incurred basis. ...the notion of constantly pushing the payment of past obligations, (accrued benefits), into the future is a financial philosophy that is not sound for the plan participants or the Mendocino County taxpayers." pdf file (366KB)
YPM Memos and Reports
YourPublicMoney.Com produces memos and larger reports from time to time about the issues addressed in this website. Many originally appear as Supplementary Information in the website that provide more detail about specific topics being discussed.
Some of these titles will open a New Window. Some are web pages, others are pdf files. For the pdf files (portable document format) you need a free copy of Acrobat Reader available by clicking here.
We post new Memos and Reports every few weeks - check back.
- Our Summary of the "Kroll Report" : (4/7/10) The Kroll Report is the most comprehensive analysis of a case of terrible mismanagement of the funding of local government retiree benefits. There are some interesting parallels with Mendocino County. - pdf file (194KB)
- The Executive Summary from the "Kroll Report" - dated 8/8/06 : This is the Executive Summary of the Kroll Report. They summarize what went wrong and why, why it took so long to get to serious effective reform, and a list of powerful recommendations that are highly relevant to Mendocino County. - pdf file (260KB)
- Excerpts from First Mendocino County Debt Report dated 10/16/08 (NOTE - zip file link below): (2/4/10) The purpose of this excerpt from the original 45 page report is to show Mendocino County citizens the breadth, depth, and extent of this report that County officials have not made even one attempt to refute in the 16 months since it was published. - pdf file (915KB)
- Excerpts from First Mendocino County Debt Report dated 10/16/08 (NOTE - zip version): (2/4/10) A "zip version" of the report above - should download in 1/3 less time, but you have to be able to "un-zip" the file. pdf file (656KB)
- Supervisors in the Frying Pan - Two Huge Issues - 2009/10 Budget Report Card: Grade F: (12/1/09) Mendocino County's Pension Fund was $130 million below its target investment returns in the past 2 years. If nothing changed the County's payments would jump from $6 million to $60 million in a decade. This memo describes the two immediate challenges they faced. The BOS receives a failing grade. - pdf file (282KB)
- Lies, DAMN LIES, and Actuarial Statistics: (8/27/09) The Value of the Pension Fund is calculated by subtracting Total Pension Obligations from the value of Pension Fund Assets. But there are two types of Asset Values - the real Market Value, and the calculated Actuarial Value. It's extremely not to misuse or confuse the two, as County Officials are doing. - pdf file (371KB)
- The 800 Pound Gorilla: (8/27/09) A 1 page summary of the paper below - pdf file (296KB)
- The 800 Pound Gorilla: (8/27/09) 6 pages - The Market Value of the County's Pension Fund is about $113 million less than it needs to be to pay all the pensions it owes in the future. County officials are focusing on trying to reduce payments to the Fund over the next few years to help get through the current budget crisis. But they are ignoring the "800 Pound Gorilla". - This debt will grow 8% a year until it is eliminated. This is a very dangerous situation and there are no good solutions - pdf file (367KB)
- County Comparisons: (7/1/09)Most Indebted Per Capita - California County comparative debt measures, rank ordering, and graphs based on the 2007 Annual Counties Report from the State Controllers Office - pdf file (397KB)
- Unfunded Pensions - Situation: (4/30/09) Report immediately after County learned its Actuary predicts a $125 million Unfunded Pension Obligation as of 6/30/09 - pdf file (351KB)
- Questions for 3/18/09 Meeting: (3/12/09) Memo for meeting arranged by 2 Supervisors with me and Retirement Association officers - questions, data, analysis. Retirement officers did not prepare for these questions and for the most part have made no attempt to answer them. pdf file (398KB)
- Two Stories: (5/10/09) These narratives give a sense of how the County Board of Supervisors has approached issues relating to its debt including telling the people the truth - web page in new window.
- BOS Debt Actions: (3/8/09) A Sampling of Board of Supervisors actions regarding debt since 1996 - including telling the people the truth pdf file (333KB).
- Retiree Healthcare Debt Brief: (10/8/08) Analysis of Mendocino County's Retiree Healthcare debt-with AON consulting valuation attached - pdf file (519KB).
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Videos
First - Do No Harm
Click to View
Mendocino County's Deeply Flawed Financing of Retiree Healthcare
We released our first in a planned series of videos examining Mendocino County's debt just before New Years. This video dives deep into Mendocino County's deeply flawed funding of Retiree Healthcare.
- Why this benefit was doomed by County officials from the start.
- How the County's Funding of this benefit directly increased long-term debt.
- How it severaly damaged thePension Fund.
- How this funding was extremely devious and hide the true financing from the public.
Click below (it's a serious video - slightly over 50 minutes)
First - Do No Harm
, 12/1/09
Click here for a list of video programs you need to view these videos.
These are best viewed on high-speed internet connections.
Some people can't pause the videos or rewind - most should be able to. If you have that problem, you may want to download the video. Windows users - right click- then "Save Target As" - give it a name and browse to the folder to which you want to save it.
Other YPM Videos
- Board of Supervisors - 6/3/09: Working on fiscal year 2009-10 budget. Issue - layoffs in Sheriff's Department. You will see for yourself the desperate situation. - 8 minutes.
Peer Review Group
Three financial professionals reviewed our analysis of Mendocino County's debt with a focus on the cause of most of that debt - unfunded retiree obligations. The group was organized at the end of 2009. In early February 2010 the Group published a letter in the Ukiah Daily Journal and provided the County Board of Supervisors with a more detailed report about their findings. Both are available below.
Data Sources
These are some of the more important sources of data and information we used in our analysis of Mendocino County's debt.
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