Why Didn't Our Supervisors Know?

1/31/10: Buck Consultants has provided Actuarial services for Mendocino County's Pension Fund for over a decade. Stanislaus County's Pension Fund terminated its relationship with Buck a year ago.

That County, its Retirement Board, and the Retired Employees of Stanislaus County (RESCO) all allege that Buck seriously damaged their Pension Fund by using flawed assumptions and data.

RESCO filed suit in November against Buck in Federal Court claiming damages of $40 million.

Two members of our Board of Supervisors recently told YourPublicMoney.Com they had never heard of these allegations against Buck until we told them.

The Modesto Bee has published numerous reports about this story over the past year.

Stanislaus and Mendocino Retirement Systems are members of the State Association of County Retirement Systems (SACRS). Mendocino Retirement officials say a major benefit of membership is keeping up to date on important developments in other Counties.

Why was our County Board of Supervisors not even told about these charges?

Supplemental Information: Articles from the Modesto Bee (pdf file - 342KB).

First - Do No Harm

1/11/10: We released our first video of a series that will examine Mendocino County's debt in early December. First - Do No Harm - a phrase attributed to Hippocrates (known as the "father of medicine") - is an in depth investigation of the County's deeply flawed funding of its retiree healthcare benefit.

Nearly 400 people have watched the video from this website; others obtained copies from friends and colleagues.

The video shows how the County's approach to funding retiree healthcare -

• Is a Major Contributor to Excessive County Debt
• Significantly Damaged the Pension Fund
• Has Led to Unavoidable Deep Cuts in This Benefit
• Hid the True Source of Funds From the Public
• Was a Hollow Commitment

Click here to see First - Do No Harm.

Crucial County Elections

1/11/10: This is a very critical moment for those who support reform of Mendocino County's finances to act.

Candidates for County office must file from 2/15 through 3/12.Right now they are deciding "Will I run?" and "What's my platform?"

Potential candidates need to see they can run as financial reformers and win.

Indeed, nothing is more important to the future of Mendocino County than to stop the debt from getting worse and figure out how to pay the debt without gutting public services.

The four County offices to be elected this year that are important for financial reform are two County Supervisors, the Auditor-Controller, and the Treasurer-Tax Collector. (Three other offices to be elected - Sheriff, DA, and County Clerk - while very important, do not have the same impact on the County's financial management).

YPM Readers Can Help

You can make a key contribution.

Write Letters to the Editor!

This is probably the best thing most YPM readers can do over the next six weeks. So far there have been very few "normal citizen" letters in local papers. Potential candidates need to see growing broad concern about the County's debt.

Talk to Colleagues, Family and Friends

Now's the time for a "buzz" about the debt to pick up steam. Bring up in your conversations how much of a problem the County's debt is and it desperately needs to be fixed. Ours is a small County - a few hundred people talking about this will make a big impact.

Talk to Potential Candidates

If you know someone considering running for office, tell them the importance of fixing our County's debt.

Peer Review Agrees With Findings

1/31/10: I asked a group of three experienced financial professionals with very diverse political views to review my data, research and analysis regarding Mendocino County's debt.

They focused their review on issues regarding the County's debt caused by unfunded retiree benefits.

It's fair to say they generally agree with my findings. Our County has deep and dangerous debt and financial problems that absolutely must be "fixed".

Click to see their report in the 1/31/10 Sunday Ukiah Daily Journal.

Farm Bureau Sounds Alarm

1/24/10: After a six month effort to understand the dimensions of our County's debt, the Mendocino County Farm Bureau published its findings in the Sunday, Jan. 24 Ukiah Daily Journal (click to see).

The Farm Bureau is our County's first citizen organization to take the time to dig into the reports I and others have produced for more than a year about our County's debt.

They should not be the last.