Currently, retirees can’t collect a pension from one public system, such as the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), and go back to work full-time for a city or county with the same retirement system.
“If I retire from Orange County and come back to work after I retire, I am limited to 960 hours a year. If I retire from Orange and go to another county or city, I can work full-time,” Moorlach said.
If the other agency has a different system – that’s a different story.
If a retiree goes where there is a different system, they can collect a full pension as well as a full-time paycheck.
There is a combined revenue opportunity that Moorlach said was created unintentionally. This currently can occur if an Orange County employee goes to work for Los Angeles or Riverside County.
Moorlach has asked his staff to investigate the legality of creating legislation that would enable pension credit to carry over, making the two retirement systems work together.
Moorlach said his proposal is a two-fold issue. The unions are not happy with retirees coming back as part time employees. By not coming back as full-time employees, it prevents unions from getting numbers.
He says legislation to amend this problem could be the remedy to watching employees face retirement at 55.
“There is nothing to keep them here,” he said. “It solves a lot of problems that were created unintentionally and ensures we keep top management.”
Louis Dettorre can be reached at ldettorre@publicceo.com
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