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Uploaded: Thursday, January 17, 2013, 11:16 AM
CalPERS rules that contract work by retired city of Menlo Park personnel director is illegal
Glen Kramer no longer working for city
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by Sandy Brundage
Almanac Staff
The state's retirement agency took a hard line against a retired city employee collecting a pension while working as a contractor for the past year, and declared former Menlo Park personnel director Glen Kramer's contract work illegal.
The Almanac broke the news last week that the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) was investigating the contract. Although the ruling apparently caught longtime senior city staff by surprise, the agency didn't need much research before finding a problem.
CalPERS requested a copy of Mr. Kramer's contract on Jan. 7, according to Assistant City Manager Starla Jerome-Robinson, who said no one from the agency discussed any issues with the city before mailing notices of the unfavorable decision, which arrived Wednesday.
"Mr. Kramer will do no further work for the city," Ms. Jerome-Robinson said on Thursday morning.
After retiring in December 2010, Mr. Kramer returned six days later to serve as interim personnel director for approximately one year. He then came back as an independent contractor in early 2012 under the auspices of Regional Government Services (RGS), an organization that provides staffing for government agencies, with a contract extended into 2013 even though the city had filled the position of human resources director in July 2012.
Mr. Kramer netted $70 per hour from the RGS contract. That adds up to an estimated $53,550 for 765 hours of work in 2012, based on city data, on top of a $130,524 annual pension. Menlo Park staff said he had recently been working about one day a week, helping the city switch from a manual to an automated payroll system, among other tasks.
If he had decided to keep working for Menlo Park after the CalPERS ruling, Mr. Kramer would have had to reimburse the state for all pension collected since he started working as an independent contractor in 2012.
CalPERS prohibits retired employees from working more than 960 hours per fiscal year as contractors if they continue receiving pension payments. The policies also state that if a temporary assignment seems equivalent to permanent employment, the employee is no longer considered retired, and must stop collecting pension, which is the provision that Mr. Kramer's contract violated, according to the agency's letter.
Backdating
A riddle surfaced during the Almanac's research into Mr. Kramer's RGS contract: an apparent two-month gap between the date Menlo Park staff signed and the date company representatives signed.
The gap shrank to five days after this reporter looked at the city's contract log. Although the signatures of Ms. Jerome-Robinson -- who was serving as interim city manager at the time -- and City Attorney Bill McClure are dated Feb. 1, 2012 on the contract, the log indicates they actually signed on March 29, 2012.
Ms. Jerome-Robinson said in an email that the first three months of 2012 were "periods of the management transition" with the hiring of a new city manager, and that "may have delayed the contract signatures" although everyone understood that Mr. Kramer began working as an independent contractor on Feb. 1, 2012.
The contract itself lists an effective start date of Feb. 1, 2012. But RGS Executive Director Richard Averett said the signatures don't need to be in place when a contractor begins work "as long as both contracting parties agree and are in the process of completing paperwork."
So why backdate the signatures?
"I can't say with certainty why there are different dates, but probably to be consistent with the start date stated in the contract," Ms. Jerome-Robinson said. "If CalPERS has shared something directly with you I would be interested in learning about it."
For his part, City Attorney Bill McClure said he has no recollection of the dates on the contract or even whether he himself filled in the date next to his signature.
But he didn't think the intent was to backdate the contract. "I don't think it would matter what date it was signed, because it's the effective date that matters."
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Posted by Disgusted, a resident of the Menlo Park: other neighborhood, on Jan 17, 2013 at 12:11 pm I wonder how many other contracts the City has violated (in particular, employee rights and unions). City Management should be held accountable.
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Posted by Reader, a resident of another community, on Jan 17, 2013 at 2:28 pm Good reporting! Keep up the fantastic work.
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Posted by gunste, a resident of the Portola Valley: Ladera neighborhood, on Jan 17, 2013 at 5:04 pm When one rads about the retirement pensions of our former civil servants at 80-90% of their final salaries, and then attempting to receive a large salary from their old places of employment, one need not wonder why the state and counties are in dire straights.
Civil servants always had more secure jobs than industry, where people served at will. And our elected officials usually had few compunctions about contracting taxpayer funds for the future, without providing for it. We see it many areas of state government, and the cities of Vallejo, Stockton and San Bernadino are poster examples of the result. The problems have come home to roost and the law says that we, the taxpayers have to make good what has been promised so rashly.
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Posted by sam, a resident of the Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park neighborhood, on Jan 18, 2013 at 12:20 pm [Post removed; don't make unsupported accusations on this forum; please email editor@AlmanacNews.com if you have information about wrongdoing or inappropriate actions.]
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Posted by Some Guy, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Jan 18, 2013 at 12:47 pm @gunste
Civil servants have more secure job? Have you ever worked in the public sector?
Cause that just isn't true. My last public sector job was paid for by a tax, that went up for a vote every two years. Every two years I had to hope the voters would renew the tax, or my job went poof.
Yeah, real secure.
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Posted by Sam Sinnott, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Jan 18, 2013 at 2:42 pm Although I do agree with Calpers, I am not the Sam whose post was removed above.
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Posted by Menlo Voter, a resident of the Menlo Park: other neighborhood, on Jan 18, 2013 at 4:48 pm Some guy:
you were the exception rather than the rule. Typically civil service jobs are quite secure. Just look at our city. What jobs require a vote on a tax every two years for people to remain employed?
Answer: NONE
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Posted by STeve, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Jan 18, 2013 at 5:15 pm I guess nobody else is qualified to run the personnel dept. or get a computer system working but the former employee. Hope he has to pay back all the money from the illegal contract. This should also service as notice to the Police Chief. I guess again that nobody in the police dept, can run it like a retired person from San Bruno!
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Posted by Bob, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Jan 20, 2013 at 9:02 pm Nobody has mentioned the "c" word -- consolidation or shared services with another jurisdiction. Maybe Menlo Park and Atherton could save some money and merge services, administration, dispatch, etc.
Maybe cities could actually think about saving money. But wait, let's just raise taxes, like the county and the state, that will solve our money problems.
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Posted by Day Zha Vu, a resident of the Menlo Park: Linfield Oaks neighborhood, on Jan 21, 2013 at 8:51 am This is what I find so deliciously perfect about this story: when the guy had the chance, he couldn't be bothered to implement a computer system. How can he possibly be the guy for the job when he has zero experience doing so?
Your tax dollars at waste.
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Posted by Disgusted, a resident of the Menlo Park: other neighborhood, on Jan 21, 2013 at 12:24 pm STeve and Day Zha Vu - both of you are absolutely right. It was greed, and the ignorance or the corruption of City Management to allow this to go on. For all the talk about transparency - where is it here? The Council is to blame as well. The personnel director did nothing to support employees and why, would payroll be a funcition of a personnel director? The whole place should be audited!
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Posted by concerned, a resident of the Menlo Park: Suburban Park/Lorelei Manor/Flood Park Triangle neighborhood, on Jan 21, 2013 at 4:21 pm I couldn't agree more with disgusted. Mr. Kramer should never have been allowed to double dip and he should have to give the money back. I also think that the City should have to answer for allowing Mr. Kramer to double dip.
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