Not Seeing Eye-to-Eye: Ventura Taxpayer Assoc Pushes for Reforms as County Defends

As is the case in counties throughout the state in recent years, pension reform has taken center stage as a contentious issue that has put taxpayer groups on the offensive and county officials in defensive positioning. Take Ventura County, as the Ventura County Taxpayers Association has been reinvigorated mission-wise in the past few years by persistently hounding the Board of Supervisors on reforms and seeking the names of retired pensioners. Ventura has an independent pension program and officials have called it conservative with reasonable benefits. Despite fierce criticism from the taxpayer group, the Ventura Star reports on the following stats:

“Ventura County offers one of the lowest retirement formulas for civilian employees in California, based on those surveys. For employees hired since 1979, the county fell beneath every one of the 19 counties but Kern as well as city governments in Oxnard, Camarillo, Santa Paula, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Ventura. Ventura and Sonoma are the only counties among the 20 independent pension programs that provide no cost-of-living increases for these retirees.”

In addition, higher benefit levels for sworn officers and expensive retiree health plans have been avoided in Ventura. However, the taxpayer group and pension critics point to the fact that Ventura has generous formulas for counting the total compensation. In response, County Executive Officer Mike Powers has noted that compensation totals have been modified by changing retirement contributions and Supervisor Peter Foy has targeted pension spiking for reforms.

The taxpayer group has written an op-ed about pushing for reforms and it can be read here. The group laments the fact that not enough has been done by the county. See more about pension reform in the county here.