City Attorney Mike Aguirre yesterday released the pension information for the five former top city officials who’ve been charged with securities fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Here they are:
Patricia Frasier: Retired on Sept. 25, 2006 with 35.8 years of creditable service, for a monthly pension benefit of $13,685.66. Spread out over 12 months, that would be $164,227.92 a year.
Ed Ryan: Retired effective July 17, 2004 with 24.76 years of creditable service. His monthly pension benefit: $10,165.62, or $121,987.44 annually.
Michael Uberuaga: Retired effective June 13, 2004 with 10.4 years of creditable service for a monthly pension benefit of $5,053.77. That’s $60,645.24 a year.
The remaining two defendants, Mary Vattimo and Teresa Webster, haven’t yet reached retirement age and are deferred members of the pension system. Vattimo has 20.02 years of service and Webster has 26.03 years. Both have left the city.
An employee’s annual pension benefit is calculated using the employee’s highest annual salary, years of service and what’s known as the “multiplier,” a figure that’s set during labor negotiations.
Employees have been able to add to their years of service by purchasing service credits, allowing them to pay upfront to add years to their base calculation. Uberuaga, for example, didn’t work 10 years at the city. He worked 5.4 and then purchased an additional five, which brought him to the 10-year baseline needed to qualify for the pension system.
Here’s a story from our archives that details how elected officials purchased service credits to boost their pensions and how much they paid for the credits.