LOS ANGELES — California Sen. Kevin De Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat, introduced a bill he said would deter corrupt officials from receiving bloated pensions.
The bill aims to block the ex-administrator of the city of Vernon, Calif., from regaining his pension after payments were cut to $115,000 a year from about $500,000 by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the state’s largest employee pension fund. The measure also could affect former officials of Bell, another LA County city tainted by corruption convictions. The legislation is supported by Assembly Speaker John Perez, a Los Angeles democrat, who like De Leon, represents Vernon.
Bruce Malkenhorst, 78, retired from his job as administrator in 2005 at a salary that paid him $911,000 in his last year of work in Vernon, a Los Angeles County city that is home to 1,200 businesses and just 112 residents. Shortly after he retired, the district attorney charged him with misappropriation of public funds a charge of which he was later convicted.
Malkenhorst was slated to receive a roughly $500,000 annual pension, one of the highest in the state. The pension fund cut the payment, contending that the city, run by Malkenhorst at the time, improperly reported his pay. He sued Vernon claiming the city should make up the difference.
Under the bill, introduced Friday, executives convicted of felony charges could only appeal the reduction of benefits to the public retirement system that pays their pension. They could also sue that agency, but not their former employer.
Malkenhorst worked for the city for 30 years.
“As he was forced out of office on corruption charges, he attempted to set himself up with an obscene and illegal pension,” De Leon said.
The legislation attempts to make certain that corrupt public officials “don’t get a chance to rip-off taxpayers a second time,” he said.
He called the bill a “permanent and lasting reform for Vernon and other cities across the state” that will deter unscrupulous public officials from “robbing taxpayers.”
The scandal-ridden Los Angeles County city narrowly avoided being disincorporated in 2011.
Over the past two years, three of Vernon’s former senior officials have been convicted of crimes relating to city activities — the mayor for voter fraud and conspiracy, Malkenhorst for misappropriation of funds, and the director of the power utility on a felony conflict-of-interest charge related to the hiring of his wife as a contractor.
State legislators introduced a bill in December 2010 that would have disincorporated the city after years of complaints from neighboring communities about corruption and pollution from Vernon’s power generating station.
De Leon, one of the disincorporation bill’s original co-authors, agreed to work with Vernon to defeat the bill if officials agreed to a series of reforms.
The disincorporation bill was defeated in September 2011.
