Vern here: While I expect this kind of thing from Daly, Archuleta and Umberg, I’m disappointed in my friends Josh and Sharon. But without further ado, here’s Duane Roberts, cross-posted from his Anaheim Investigator:
Six State Legislators Signed Letters Backing Santa Ana Police Union President’s Bid to Increase Pension.
Two letters The Anaheim Investigator obtained from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) through the public records act show that six members of the state legislature not only quietly lent their names in support of a bid by Gerry Serrano, president of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, to increase his future pension earnings, but circumstantial evidence suggests at least five of them received hefty campaign contributions in return for their efforts.
Though nothing in the letters specifically mentions Serrano by name, they do make reference to a set of facts that are only unique to his case. Furthermore, the police union president himself actually entered them into evidence during a video conference hearing about his pension that was held before Adam L. Berg, an administrative law judge, on November 21, 2021. The sole reason why The Investigator became aware of their existence is because Berg cited them in a ruling released earlier this year,
Both letters, which were typed on official state government stationery, are identically worded. The only exception is they have different letterheads and signatories. The first one, dated May 14, 2021, uses a generic letterhead and is signed by Senator Bob Archuleta, Senator Tom Umberg, Assemblyman Tom Daly, Assemblyman Freddie Rodriquez, and Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk–Silva. But the second one, dated June 3, 2021, is only signed by Senator Josh Newman and uses the letterhead of his office.
In the correspondence, all six state legislators expressed their deep and underlying concerns about a decision that CalPERS made to exclude “special compensation” earned by an “employee / union president” from being “used to determine the employee’s total monthly pension payments upon retirement.” It was their belief, they wrote, that “CalPERS has issued an interpretation of state law” that was “inconsistent with the clear language and legislative intent of the controlling statutes.”
The legislators argued that several government codes, including one passed by the state legislature in 2018, authorizes “public employers to grant a leave of absence and allow representatives of employee organizations to fulfill their union responsibilities without loss of compensation or other benefits.” For CalPERS to deny this “employee / union president” pension credit for the “special compensation” he earned while performing these duties was a direct violation of state law, they claimed.
But in the months that followed, their letters have so far had little, if any impact, on subsequent legal proceedings which dealt with Serrano’s pension. In Berg’s ruling, issued on February 15, 2022, he wrote that both letters “contain the authors’ opinion as to the meaning” of the government code “and what they believe the outcome of the case should be.” From the judge’s perspective, these were “inadmissible opinions as to the ultimate legal question in this case” and “were not considered.”
During a seven month period between June and December 2021, the Santa Ana Police Officers Association funneled a combined total of $24,100 into the campaign coffers of at least five of the six state legislators who signed the letters. And all of the contributions, interestingly enough, appear to have been curiously timed…
Good (though sad) catch by Duane. I doubt that Sharon or Josh (or for that matter Archuleta, but I don’t care about him) personally looked into this matter. Sharon has historically been close to Fiona Ma — though she might be distancing herself now, though I don’t have any insider info on that — and would be inclined to take her word on this. Maybe the same is true of Umberg. Josh’s late arrival to the party suggests that (1) he wasn’t enthusiastic about this in the first place, but (2) gave into some peer pressure from seeing Ma and Sharon (and maybe other of his colleagues) signing onto it.
Yes, everyone should have fully and personally researched information about an issue about something like this — just like we should personally research every item that we share on Facebook, yet rarely do — but let’s get real: one generally takes the word of sources one thinks one can trust. In Sharon’s and Josh’s case, and maybe Umberg’s, Fiona Ma now has three more electeds that will be much less likely to trust her.
I already know that I won’t endorse Fiona Ma in her runoff; the question for me is whether I will endorse her competitor. Unfortunately, it may take a few corrupt Dems losing to Republicans for the state party to start to take this sort of disgusting activity seriously.
Horse shit. Every one of those stooges took Serrano’s money knowing it was coming from him and why he was asking for the letter. All of them either just had or have elections coming up. There’s no such thing as coincidences amongst politicians.
Everybody here luvs ’em some Quirk. Well, almost everyone.
Piss off, anonymous coward. That said:
I’ll bet that four of the people who took money from SAPOA were Bob Archuleta, Tom Umberg, Tom Daly, and Freddie Rodriquez. The fifth was probably Sharon, possibly Josh, although does DOES NOT have an election coming up — which you’d know if you checked your facts. Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk–Silva may have taken money, but that doesn’t mean that she did so to appease Serrano as opposed to her being good enough friends with Ma to take her word on the merit of the action.
If you were interested in accomplishing something, you could — under your real name — start a campaign to demand that any recipients of this money donate it to a charitable cause. No, not “give it back” — put it to better use. I’d respect your position if you did that. I’m not betting that you will — but let us know if you do.