Clout, Conflicts and Controversies: Everything about CalPERS is BIG
From November 2004
Community Comments
Across Q Street and connected by a vehicle and pedestrian tunnel rises an annex. At 550,000 square feet, it’s even larger than the mother ship. When completed in spring 2005 — behind schedule, but probably within budget — it will feature the latest in energy-saving designs and equipment, low-thirst landscaping and recycled building materials. The total cost will be around $251 million.
That’s a big price tag, to be sure, but almost everything about CalPERS is big.
It serves 1.4 million members, employs nearly 1,700 people, has a quarter-billion-dollar operating budget, runs the nation’s largest public employee pension fund ($166 billion in assets), pays out nearly $7 billion annually in retirement benefits (that’s $28.8 million every working day) and is the third-largest purchaser of health benefits ($3.5 billion in fiscal 2004, behind only the federal government and General Motors).
It also generates controversy like a Michael Moore film. For many on the right, CalPERS board members are too political and its investor activism too pro-union, too “green” and too meddlesome. Even some state employees are unhappy with CalPERS, claiming its healthcare policies favor holding down costs instead of increasing services.
If the CalPERS board is “too political,” that may be unavoidable. Among its 13 members are six elected by public employees (four from specific constituencies, two at large), two appointed by the governor, one appointed by members of the Legislature and three ex officio.
CalPERS runs the nation's largest public employee pension fund, pays out nearly $7 billion annually in a retirement benefits - $28.8 million every working day - and is the thrid-largest purchaser o fhealth benefits, behind only the federal government and General Motors.
Continued...
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