Posts Tagged: judge

Bankrupt San Bernardino announced an agreement with CalPERS last week to pay off an unprecedented pension debt owed for skipping payments to the pension fund for a year — $13.5 million, plus several million more in penalties and interest. Details of the agreement reached in closed mediation were not released. But the city said in a court filing the CalPERS agreement “will help form the basis” for a debt-cutting plan needed to exit bankruptcy.

Can public pensions be cut in bankruptcy?

Bus stop in Stockton, Delta College. (Photo: San Joaquin RTD)

by ED MENDEL posted 06.09.2014

Calpensions: Stockton filed a revised debt-cutting plan last week that could lead to a deal with a holdout creditor, Franklin bonds, possibly enabling the city to emerge from bankruptcy without cutting pensions. But however that plays out, a federal judge may rule on whether public pensions issued through the California Public Employees Retirement System can be cut in bankruptcy like other debts.

But a series of state court rulings are widely believed to mean that the pension offered current workers on the date of hire becomes a vested right, protected by contract law, that can only be cut if offset by a new benefit of comparable value. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Patricia Lucas said in her ruling the question before her court is “one of law, not of policy,” referring to a state Supreme Court response to city and county briefs on an Orange County attempt to cut retirement costs.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein, ruling disclosure was adequate, gave Stockton permission to circulate the debt-cutting “plan of adjustment” to all creditors for a vote on Feb. 10. An objection from one creditor can force a trial.

A superior court judge overturned a freeze on retiree health care for Los Angeles city attorneys this month, citing some of the same case law that made public pensions a vested right that can only be cut if offset by a new benefit.

Reduce Parolee Recidivism. This could include (1) improving or expanding current rehabilitation programs, (2) developing alternative sanctions for technical violations, or (3) better matching of programs and parolees.

Bond insurers who walked away from mediation last year before Stockton filed for bankruptcy are at the table this summer. A deal could avoid a precedent-setting legal showdown on whether public pensions can be cut in bankruptcy.

Attorneys for the city and bond insurers told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein last week that mediation, presided

One of the first local ballot measures aimed at cutting public pension costs, a cap on Pacific Grove payments to CalPERS approved by voters three years ago, was ruled unconstitutional by a Monterey County superior court judge last week.

Judge Thomas Wills ruled Friday that Measure R violated the contract clause of the state

A judge has thrown out a state regulation that insurers said allows the insurance commissioner to decide on his own what constitutes an unfair business practice — a designation that can carry severe penalties for companies and their agents.

Insurers said the court’s decision was necessary to fix a deeply flawed regulation and suggested