The Eugene Water and Electricity Board, along with several other local governments, has already filed a lawsuit against PERS for what it contends are unjustified hikes in pension costs. City finance guru Ken Rust has spent the past year looking at how the state Public Employees Retirement System manages its money. And I don't think it's fraud. Rust and his colleague, Steve Manton, have been carefully scrutinizing the state agency, which handles retirement benefits for state, local and school-district employees. Just like other local governments, the city pays into PERS each year to provide retirement benefits to its employees.
Public employees kick in, too.
The money is invested, then doled out to retired employees based on years of service and their former salary. The city's contribution fluctuates slightly from year to year, depending on how fast overall retirement costs are expected to grow. In all, it's enough money to renovate Civic Stadium not once but eight times. Portland wasn't alone. That's not how the system was supposed to work.