The Los Gatos Town Council is looking for three experienced financial experts, who are also town residents, to help develop strategies for dealing with unfunded pension liabilities.
Unfunded pension liabilities total nearly $54 million, with just more than $33 million of that owed to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, town finance director Steve Conway told the council when he delivered his mid-year budget report at its Feb. 21 meeting.
“That number will grow,” Conway said. “We know it will grow because CalPers has lowered the discount rate and they have told us and we have read their information and they expect that number will grow in time. We’re working on getting more up-to-date information and have a recommendation for council very soon.”
That recommendation is expected in early April.
As a result, the council moved quickly on a previously-approved plan to add three citizen volunteers to the two-member Town Council Finance Committee that’s chaired by Councilman Steve Leonardis. Vice mayor Rob Rennie is the other committee member.
Councilwoman Barbara Spector said the volunteers need to be selected as soon as possible “so that they can participate in the finance committee meeting, which may require that finance committee meeting to be delayed a day or two.”
The finance committee is tentatively scheduled to meet March 20.
Applicants for the finance committee must be residents who are registered voters. They should have at least five years of corporate, business or government financial experience or be a principal/officer at a financial auditing firm. Investment bankers, accountants and people with budget or finance management experience are also encouraged to apply.
“I think these citizens should have multi-year appointments in order to provide the continuity that’s necessary, but also so these well-qualified citizens would make the commitment necessary to fully engage,” resident Lee Fagot said.
Fagot is one of the residents who last month proposed putting citizen volunteers on the finance committee.
The town council voted unanimously to appoint the citizen volunteers to three year terms. Although they will be non-voting committee members, it’s hoped their work will go a long way toward developing strategies to pay down m,the pension debt
“Quite frankly, the unfunded pension issue is a key issue where we really need the public’s vetting to assist the council finance committee in vetting those items before they come to you in early April,” town manager Laurel Prevetti said.
Finance committee meetings are open to the public.
The town council also decided to transfer more than $1.9 million into a reserve fund that includes CalPers and other post-employment benefits. The money will come from an anticipated $4.1 million town surplus.
The booming economy is partly responsible for the surplus, Conway said, so the council agreed to spend about $1.6 million of it now. The extensive spending list includes $75,000 for tree removals due to the storms, $21,000 for crossing guards, $17,000 for the utility art box program and $11,000 for laptops for the emergency operations center.
The remainder of the surplus will be set aside for the 2017/18 fiscal year.
Residents who are interested in applying for the town finance committee should contact town clerk Shelley Neis at sneis@losgatosca.gov or call 408.354.6888.
