Thursday, November 3, 2011

Sacramento Bee: Former GOP chair brings pension reformers together

Former GOP chair brings pension reformers together

Published: Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 3A
 
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Wednesday's unveiling of two plans to roll back public employee retirement benefits signals that the once-fractured "pension reform" movement is on the mend.
The group pushing the measures for the November 2012 ballot, California Pension Reform, pulls together several high-profile players: former California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim, former GOP Assemblyman Roger Niello, former Schwarzenegger finance director Mike Genest and CPR's president, Dan Pellissier, who has worked as a legislative staff member and as an appointee in the Schwarzenegger administration.

Last summer the movement appeared to be in disarray. The movers and shakers were floating different ideas, competing for donations, and couldn't find anyone to sort through competing pension change plans and unite a campaign.

Pellissier and another prominent figure in the pension debate, Citrus Heights-based CPA Marcia Fritz, were barely talking to each other. They divided over policy, such as whether it made sense to shift workers into 401(k)-style plans or hybrids that keep a guaranteed pension component.

Meanwhile, Niello proposed a ballot initiative that contained a politically explosive idea: set 62 as the full retirement age for all California public employees, including current workers.

It was immediately dismissed as a ploy to raise Niello's profile to run for statewide office or Congress. The proposal didn't gain traction or donors to gather signatures for the ballot, but privately other pension reformers seethed that he had grabbed the issue.

The reform movement seemed incoherent, while some polls indicated that Californians across party lines were telling pollsters they wanted to see public pensions dialed back.

Two government reports recommended altering pensions. High-profile scandals and the struggles of cities and counties to meet their pension obligations all added to a sense that something had to change, said Pepperdine political scientist Michael Shires: "Even the unions could see that there's a problem."
Many have bargained concessions over the last two years.

Enter Sundheim, a political infighter who knows how to raise cash. In 2005, he became the first chairman in the history of the California Republican Party to win re-election. During his time in office the red party raised a record $100 million in a deep-blue state.

Talking to Pellissier and others backing this new effort to change pensions, you get the feeling that Sundheim put the disparate reformers in a room and cracked a few heads.

"Basically, it was Duf," Pellissier said, acknowledging that the Northwestern University Law School graduate brings leadership and skill that the movement needs.

Pulling together a half-dozen people with similar interests is different from marshaling the money to win a statewide election.

That's the next test.

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