Sacramento Bee Editorial Lauding Byron Buck

By Byron M. Buck

This Buck didn't stop. Water Leader finds himself lonely, right. Sacramento Bee, June 22, 2006

Some, fortunately, are willing to do so. Byron Buck of the Sacramento Suburban Water District is one such leader.

Over the years, Buck's actions on the Sacramento Suburban Board have left him accustomed to feeling a little lonely. But Buck's political loneliness is worthy of attention and emulation by local governments up and down the state.

All those governments, like Sacramento Suburban face skyrocketing pension costs. But Sacramento Suburban, with Buck as board president, has decided to do something about it.

The water district has decided to trim the retirement formula for future employees. If another local government in the Sacramento region, or any other water district anywhere in California, has recently taken this sensible move, we're not award of it.

The name of this district, Sacramento Suburban, may ring a bell with the careful reader. A few years back, we wrote a few dozen editorials about this and other water districts and the peculiar ways they did the public's business. Byron Buck was on the Sacramento Suburban board at the time, asking all the right questions. But back then, a majority of the board were less less willing to ask questions. Eventually that changed. An outside auditor reviewed the books and found thousands of dollars in improprieties. Then prosecutors descended. The district's general manager and his top assistant ended up in federal prision.

Buck was vindicated, and then some. But the district still had some financial prolems, like its pension system.

Just about every other government in California during the dot-com stock craze, Sacramento Suburban thought it could painlessly increase its employee pension benefits through investment gains. All those governments were wrong.

Sacramento Suburban's annual pension costs increased by more than 60 percent in just one year, 2004. The district still owes the retirement system about $5 million just to keep it whole. That's a whole lot of money for a district with an operating budget of less than $30 million.

So under Buck's prodding, the board recently decided it could no longer afford a retirement benefit that was allowing a 25-year veteran to retire at age 60 with 75 percent of pay. New employees after 25 years could still retire at 60 but at roughly 56 percent of pay. That will substantially reduce the pension costs for every future employee.

If every local government in California did the same, the long-term savings could be in the billions. Sometimes the herd should follow the renegades who know the way.