School administrators given illegal boost, challenge says
Source: San Diego Union Tribune>
By Chris Moran
STAFF WRITER
August 13, 2005
SAN YSIDRO – The San Ysidro school board illegally jacked up the publicly funded pensions of two administrators by more than $10,000 a year each as they retired in 2002, auditors have found.
The California State Teachers' Retirement System is challenging the pension increases to former associate superintendents Christine Aranda and Alice De La Torre. Within weeks of their retirements, the San Ysidro board gave retroactive raises that boosted their annual pay by more than $15,000 each.
Aranda's retirement benefits increased by $869 a month as a result of the raise she got six weeks before retiring as San Ysidro's associate superintendent of educational services, according to a CalSTRS document calling for a reversal of the pension increase. Aranda is now board president of Southwestern College.
De La Torre's monthly pension check went up by $1,189 because of the raise she got three weeks before she retired as associate superintendent of human resources, according to the same CalSTRS document.
CalSTRS does not object to the salary raises themselves but claims the school board granted the raises for the purpose of inflating De La Torre's and Aranda's pensions. That practice, which CalSTRS calls "spiking," is prohibited by state law.
CalSTRS found that retirements so soon after the raises and the board's replacement of Aranda and De La Torre with assistant superintendents at lower salaries were proof that the board was spiking their pensions.
Aranda had no comment on the case. De La Torre could not be reached for comment.
CalSTRS is a retirement fund for teachers of kindergarten through community college. It's funded by contributions from public school teachers and administrators, their school district employers, state general fund money and interest earnings.
Retirees' benefits are based in part on the highest salaries they earned. CalSTRS estimates that if the last-minute raises are figured in, Aranda and De La Torre would, between them, receive nearly $300,000 more in pension payments over their lifetimes than they would if the raises were excluded from the calculations.
The current San Ysidro board, after having spent $72,000 in legal fees on the case, has voted not to contest CalSTRS in next month's hearing before an administrative law judge to decide whether Aranda and De La Torre get to keep the increased pension benefits. Aranda and De La Torre have hired an attorney.
Last year, CalSTRS put the retired administrators on an installment plan to repay the extra pension benefits they had already received, said Wendy Tucker, the attorney who represented San Ysidro until the district pulled out of the case.
The case arises from a particularly turbulent era in the 5,100-student district with an annual budget of $39 million.
An account from documents obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune through a public records request show that in early 2002 Aranda and De La Torre felt they were working in a hostile work environment.
Dr. Jose Torres had been hired as superintendent in November 2001 and barred Aranda and De La Torre from attending some meetings and "went so far as to publicly humiliate and demean them," according to the district's response to the CalSTRS audit findings.
Because of Torres' inexperience, his "disruptive" impact on employees and his conflict with the board, Aranda and De La Torre carried a heavier load than they had under his predecessor, the 13-page response states. The duties included labor negotiations with teachers who came close to striking in February 2002.
On June 8, 2002, the board fired Torres. At that same meeting, by a vote of 3-1 with one abstention, it changed the titles of Aranda and De La Torre from assistant superintendent to associate superintendent and each got an annual raise of $15,506, retroactive to July 1, 2001.
The raises were approved in part as an incentive to keep Aranda and De La Torre working for the district.
It didn't work. Aranda retired six weeks later, including a three-week stint as interim superintendent. De La Torre retired three weeks after she received her retroactive raise. They both retired at annual salaries of $120,000.
CalSTRS would not release information on the retirees' total retirement compensation, only the amount at stake. But retirees with decades of experience often receive pensions nearly as great as their highest salaries.
Trustees Jean Romero and Yolanda Hernandez, the only trustees still on the five-member San Ysidro board from three years ago, both said that the district's attorney said the raises were legal and that they were not granted to boost retirement pay.
Romero was the only trustee to vote against the raises, "because it didn't feel right," she said. Romero said the board shouldn't have been doling out hefty pay raises in a crisis atmosphere. Rather, she said, raises should have been tied to achievement, as in the case of Grace Kojima, who retired as superintendent in 2001 and came back to serve as interim superintendent for several months in 2002.
Hernandez said she not only believes Aranda and De La Torre deserved the raises but also that they should keep the pension increases even though the district has withdrawn from the case.
"They're very valuable and they helped the district a lot, especially in those difficult times," Hernandez said.
A spokeswoman for CalSTRS would not comment on why San Ysidro was audited. She said audits are regularly scheduled but can also occur as a result of tips or because of red flags, such as dramatic salary changes.
