California’s richest pensioners revealed as fat cats raking in $400K for doing nothing

Retired fat cat California bureaucrats are pocketing a staggering $6.3 billion a year in pensions — with some being paid up to $462,000 a year for doing nothing.

As the state’s public servant pension shortfall soars to at least $153 billion, the California Post can reveal that more than 63,000 retired public servants are being paid at least $100,000 a year from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension fund in the US.

The massive gravy train — and recent efforts to further increase pension payouts — has been slammed by local elected officials who also benefit from CalPERS for straining local government budgets when they’re forced to pick up the tab for rising pensions.

“In the 1990s and the early 2000s, similar pension packages nearly bankrupted this state and many of our local municipalities,” Santa Barbara County Supervisor Bob Nelson told lawmakers last year, noting his county has had to pay out an extra $100 million annually to keep up with rising pensions.

“Those payments came at real costs: Reductions to pay public safety staffing and fewer resources to address mental health, homelessness and criminal justice reform,” he added.

The 63,107 pensioners earning six figures are more than double the amount from 2018, when more than 26,000 were in the $100K-plus club. Two decades ago, in 2005, just 1,841 retirees were pocketing six-figure pensions, the Orange County Register reported.

The pension bonanza has been labeled a financial ticking time bomb by experts who spoke with the California Post, after to a decision by former Democrat Gov. Gray Davis in 1999 to sign a law significantly increasing public pension benefits for state employees.

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“If I knew then what I know now, I would never have signed SB 400,” Davis said in 2012, referring to the law.

Much of CalPERS is a defined benefit pension system funded by a mix of employee contributions, investment growth and contributions by government employers — in other words, taxpayer dollars.

“The system is $153 billion short on assets needed to pay for promised benefits, the largest single pension debt in the country,” Zachary Christensen, who leads the Pension Integrity Project at the Reason Foundation, told The Post.

“The growing number of retirees receiving lavish public pension benefits in California rightfully frustrates taxpayers and will likely worsen in the years ahead,” Christensen added.

The average annual pension benefit is $44,209, according to a Post analysis. But the number of top-tier earners — those raking in at least $300,000 in benefits — has grown in recent years.

In 2023, there were just 21. Last year, the number grew to 36.

Topping the list is Curtis Ishii, who was a managing investment director for fixed income at CalPERS itself. He collected $462,784 last year and has been one of the biggest recipients since he retired in 2018 after more than 40 years in public service.

One reason for his big benefits: His last paycheck in 2017 was $688,000. Government pensions are calculated with a formula based on annual salary and years of service. Investment officers are among the highest-paid California state employees.

Michael D. Johnson, a former Solano County administrator, was not far behind with his $426,028 pension last year. Johnson became Solano County administrator in 1992 at age 43 with 19 years of experience in the public sector. His total gross pay in 2010, the last full year he worked for the county, was $354,197.

His annual payment has grown over the years, as CalPERS applies annual cost-of-living increases. Johnson was previously the highest earner when he had a $372,000 pension in 2019.

The last of the big three is Steve Maguin, who had a 23-year career in solid waste management and was chief engineer plus general manager of Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts. In 2012, he held a salary of $125,693. He received $418,614 last year from CalPERS.

Maguin passed away in January, according to a LinkedIn post, after retiring in 2012.

“I talked with him not long after his retirement and he seemed happy and fulfilled,” one user commented on the news of his death.

The rest of the CalPERS beneficiaries who got lavish payments totaling more than $350,000 last year are:

• Joaquin Fuster, professor of cognitive neuroscience at UCLA, with $385,479.57 in pension payments. Tenure-track and ladder-rank professors at UCLA earn a median salary of $294,100.
• Leroy J. Jackson, city manager of Torrance, with $369,485.19 in pension payments. He reportedly made $268,382 in his job in 2018.
• James F. Stahl, chief engineer at LA County Sanitation Districts, with $366,629.46 in pension payments. He held the role before Maguin.
• Susan A. Cummings, physician for County of Santa Clara, with $365,165.55 in pension payments. She was reportedly paid $184.65 per hour in 2020.
• John Di Stasio, CEO of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, with $357,647.19 in pension payments. He had a reported salary of $135,826 in 2014.
• Artie Fields, city manager of Inglewood, with $357,125.10 in pension payments. He was paid $304,146 for the role in 2023.

Not all recipients have fully retired, with some moving on to non-government jobs. For example, Di Stasio is listed as the president of the Large Public Power Council, where he advocates for public power systems in Washington, DC.

Huge annual pensions may eventually phase out after California lawmakers passed a 2013 law that ties public pensions to IRS limits.

Still, there are many going into retirement with pensions formed before the 2013 rules went into effect. CalPERS’ total payout has increased in recent years, from $29.1 billion in 2021-22 to $34.6 billion in 2024-25. The total number of members receiving pensions also grew.

All that will put strain on CalPERS to keep up with its benefits obligations, despite a banner year in investment returns.

“That has been the question that has been discussed for years and years in all public sector jobs,” said Dr. Jeffrey Goodrich, a professor with UCLA’s Financial Management Program and a wealth advisor at JCG Private Wealth Management. “They’re supported by the communities or the state, or the cities, or the municipalities, and those numbers are getting bigger and bigger all the time, and they’ve reached tremendous sums.”

Goodrich said the rising number of bulging pensions could be attributed to more people taking advantage of the benefits and staying longer in public service. People may also just be getting higher salaries, which the pension formula is based on, he added.

Christensen blamed former Gov. Davis, who along with state lawmakers in 1999 gave all public workers and retirees a massive pension benefit increase.

“The impact of this decision has played out over decades; workers who were just getting started in their careers at the time are now reaching retirement and cashing in on their sweetened CalPERS benefits,” Christensen said.

Back then, Davis approved a massive expansion of benefits as the pension system was flush with cash. CalPERS had assured then there would be no cost due to “booming stock market and investment strategies.”

The changes enabled state and local government employees to stop working at an earlier age to collect more retirement pay and made more lucrative pension calculations retroactive.

But economic crises occurred, from the dot-com bubble to the Great Recession. The increased benefits combined with investment losses caused annual government contributions to CalPERS to jump from $1.6 billion in 1999 to $26.7 billion this fiscal year.

Despite the ballooning cost, unions were still pushing for pension increases as recently as this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom ended up vetoing a bill last month that would have expanded pension benefits for police officers and firefighters.

“This is an era of California history I do not wish to repeat,” Newsom wrote in his veto statement, citing the pension crisis before the 2013 law.

Large public pension payouts may continue for at least another decade before the group of workers most affected by the state’s 2013 pension reforms starts retiring, Christensen explained. Until then, unions — a major political force in Sacramento — will continue seeking higher payouts.

“Very strong unions make sure their members get the compensation they deserve, and you’re hoping that the city, or the municipalities, or the counties have good negotiators on their side,” UCLA’s Goodrich said.

“That’s an unknown factor to say, can we do this forever, and the answer is I don’t know,” he added.