Pension Board

The Baltimore City Council president plans to request hearings on the police and fire departments' pension fund's loss of $3.5 million in investments tied to disgraced money manager Bernard L. Madoff. At today's meeting, council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake will propose a resolution seeking an inquiry into investment policy guidelines. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is working to untangle the web of investors affected by Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

For two years Marcus L. Brown quietly served as the steady hand in a Baltimore Police Department whose top job had been beset by political turmoil and turnover. Through it all, the former deputy commissioner worked behind the scenes to execute then-Mayor Martin O'Malley's policing policies while largely avoiding the distracting scrutiny leveled against police commissioners. Until now. When O'Malley took over as governor in January, he picked Brown to lead the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, at a salary of $127,500.

With powerful politicians endorsing their election-year appeal, leaders of the Maryland State Teachers Association believe pension benefits for their members will be raised this year by the General Assembly.Gov. Parris N. Glendening and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. have signed on to the teachers' approach to winning $3 billion in higher state contributions to their pension fund.Even two of the teachers' oldest and most powerful opponents -- state Treasurer Richard N. Dixon and Republican state Sen. Robert R. Neall -- agree that improvements are warranted and overdue, though they disagree with the union on what to do.The teachers are working diligently to arouse indignation and grass-roots fervor to impress legislators.

REMEMBER THIS name: Richard N. Dixon. You could be hearing a lot from him in the months and years ahead. Mr. Dixon is the state treasurer, a potentially powerful post that most citizens don't even know exists. The position is filled every four years by the General Assembly -- from whence Mr. Dixon came -- not by voters. Thus, the anonymity.But with the $100,000-a-year job comes membership on some potent bodies, including the state's Board of Public Works and the state's pension board. The treasurer also reinvests Maryland's revenue -- about $250 million comes in every day -- in super-safe but high-yielding government securities.

STATE WORKERS AND public-school teachers had better pay more attention to what's happening (or not happening) on their pension-retirement board. Some troubling developments indicate that far more public visibility of issues before the retirement panel might help avoid some embarrassing and costly pitfalls.Take the exorbitant fees imposed on 35,000 state employees who put money into their private retirement savings accounts. For much of the past two decades, the board permitted the Public Employees Benefit Services Corp.

An article in yesterday's editions implied that a report by city comptroller candidate Julian L. Lapides on his opponent, Joan M. Pratt, and her attendance at pension board meetings preceded an article in City Paper on the same subject. In fact, the City Paper article came first.The Sun regrets the error.City comptroller candidate Julian L. Lapides has accused his opponent, Joan M. Pratt, of missing more than one-third of the meetings for boards that she serves on for the Schmoke administration.

Parris Glendening has now met the Law of Unintended Consequences -- and he will have to live with the ramifications of what happened for a long time.Who could have predicted the new governor's first crisis would revolve around something that took place years ago in Prince George's County and that has absolutely nothing to do with the governance of Maryland?Yet the brouhaha over Mr. Glendening's role in pension payouts to aides who followed him from Upper Marlboro to Annapolis isn't a momentary news story.

Former Baltimore Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean, whose political career ended with her conviction in a corruption scandal last year, is fighting to keep her pension.Lawyers for Mrs. McLean yesterday appealed a decision by city trustees to revoke her $23,850 annual pension. The seven-member pension board voted in a closed-door session April 6 that Mrs. McLean had to relinquish her benefits because she was convicted of theft and misconduct.Mrs. McLean tearfully pleaded guilty in September to stealing thousands in taxpayer dollars by having a fictitious employee on her payroll.

Former Baltimore Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean, whose political career ended with her conviction in a corruption scandal, is continuing to draw pension payments while the city trustees seek legal advice on whether to revoke her benefits.Mrs. McLean stepped down from office in July with an annual pension of $23,850 and medical benefits. Two months later, she tearfully pleaded guilty to stealing thousands in taxpayer dollars by having a fictitious employee on her payroll.The seven-member pension board decided this week to hire a private lawyer to help determine whether she must relinquish her pension now that she has been sentenced for her theft scheme.

Baltimore Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean retired this morning, ending a once-promising political career that collapsed over the past six months amid charges of corruption in office.Mrs. McLean, the first black woman to rise to the city's third-highest office, received approval from the city pension board to step down with full benefits.City Solicitor Neal M. Janey determined last week that there was no legal basis for withholding Mrs. McLean's benefits while she is awaiting trial on fraud and misconduct charges.

The agency that runs a voluntary retirement plan for state employees failed to adequately disclose a $48 million loss in the market value of a conservative investment pool, according to an audit released Monday. A toughly worded report suggests that the staff and board of the Maryland Teachers and State Employees Supplemental Retirement Plans had been lax in their oversight of private firms that manage many of the plan's investments. The auditors also said plan managers were unable to answer many of their questions or provide relevant documents.

If the vote by the Baltimore fire and police pension board to pass a whopping $165 million tab on to the city was meant as a call for attention, let's hope they now have it. Heavy stock market losses combined with unsustainable benefits and systemic management issues have forced the board to request twice as large a contribution from the city next year as they're getting this year. The city, which has already been forced to enact layoff and furloughs, to cut services and eliminate capital projects, can't afford it without raising property tax rates by 11 percent.

The moment of horror that hit Baltimore this year, when officials realized the depth of the city's pension problems, came a full seven years ago for San Diego. During a 2002 City Council meeting in that Southern California city, a pension board member announced that the city's plan needed more than $1 billion in taxpayer money to stay afloat. "My heart went down to my toes," recalled April Boling, a certified public accountant in the audience who immediately understood that the retirement system was poised to bankrupt the city.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake wants to tap a prominent business-group leader to head a commission examining the city's troubled fire and police pension system. Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, has accepted an invitation from Rawlings-Blake and City Councilman William H. Cole IV to lead an effort to review a retirement program whose ballooning costs have created what both call a "fiscal crisis." "You want to make sure that these funds are sustainable and you do have enough money to support them," said Fry, a former Harford County state senator who is also heading a panel to award slot-machine licenses in Maryland.

The Baltimore City Council president plans to request hearings on the police and fire departments' pension fund's loss of $3.5 million in investments tied to disgraced money manager Bernard L. Madoff. At today's meeting, council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake will propose a resolution seeking an inquiry into investment policy guidelines. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is working to untangle the web of investors affected by Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Baltimore police and fire employees lost about $3.5 million in pension money invested in a fund with ties to disgraced money manager Bernard L. Madoff. Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme has dented public funds and nonprofits across the country, with new victims discovered daily. Also affecting Maryland is the demise of a justice foundation that routinely gave millions to organizations such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Baltimore's Job Opportunities Task Force. The JEHT Foundation announced days after Madoff was arrested that it had lost everything and would close at the end of this month.

The Board of Public Works agreed yesterday to clarify the appointment process for advisers to the state retirement and pension system after complaints that a nominee who would have been the first African-American in that post was treated poorly. Comptroller Peter Franchot and state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh said yesterday that Larry E. Jennings Jr., co-founder and senior managing director of TouchStone Partners, a private equity firm that manages over $300 million in assets, was treated unfairly and subsequently withdrew his name from consideration, creating concern among many in the state's minority business community.

Baltimore's police union is suing the city and its retirement system over a questionable pension awarded to a top city police commander who retired and took a job with a state police agency. The lawsuit, filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, demands that Marcus L. Brown's pension be revoked and that he repay the money that has already been given to him. City Solicitor George Nilson said his office had reviewed the matter two months ago and concluded Brown's pension was awarded legally. "I'm fairly confident that we'll defend the action taken and that we'll be right," he said.

Baltimore's police union has authorized its law firm to explore the possibility of suing the city and the Police Department over a former top deputy's pension deal approved this year. Paul M. Blair Jr., president of Baltimore's Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said yesterday that the union's board of directors voted to seek clarification on "possible improprieties" involving the pension given to Marcus L. Brown. "There's a lot of questions, and what they really want is for us to find an answer," said Blair, about concerns he's heard from his union members.

Following advice from the city's attorney, Mayor Sheila Dixon said yesterday that she was convinced that Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm followed the "intent and letter of the law" when he requested an early pension for his former top deputy, who left in January for a state job. But the mayor ordered that all city agencies comply with new guidelines crafted by City Solicitor George A. Nilson on handling early-pension requests that include consulting with...