CalPERS, the state pension fund, gave Mariposa County officials quite a scare last week after suggesting 23 workers would have to be terminated, or those workers could risk losing the pension they had already started receiving.
The workers, and their pensions, are safe for now.
Over a 72 hour period, the crisis was averted, although it is unclear whether CalPERS backed down, county officials overreacted or perhaps a bit of both.
The underlying issue isn’t going away, however, and it could affect counties and government workers throughout the state.
‘Retired annuitants’
The 23 workers are so-called retired annuitants, employees who retired from California government work, began drawing a CalPERS pension, but then returned to work for the county in a temporary or specialized role while continuing to collect their pension.
For Mariposa County, the practice was a win-win, a way to hold on to valuable experience at a lower cost.
But for CalPERS, those are workers no longer paying into the pension fund.
After a CalPERS review of Mariposa County and 20 other counties, the state pension fund seemed to suggest the practice needed to come to an end, soon.
Very soon.
At a Mariposa County Board of Supervisors meeting July 14, there was a palpable sense of panic and dread over what that could mean to the county’s budget and public safety.
“It’s dangerous and confusing,” said County Administrative Officer Joe Lynch, who found out about the issue a few days earlier, on July 8.
The greatest impact would have been on the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office.
Twelve deputies have returned to the sheriff’s office to perform various functions, ranging from bailiffs who handle security at the courthouse to administrators who process gun permits.
Mariposa County Sheriff Jeremy Briese said in the short-term he would need to fill the bailiff slots, which must be sworn peace officers, with deputies from patrol. Ultimately, he said, full-time deputies would need to be hired.
“These individuals have served in specialized roles and are not easily or quickly replaced,” Briese warned.
“The impact extends beyond simply losing personnel. Many of these employees possess decades of institutional knowledge, specialized certificates, unique experience and essentially support our public safety functions in these roles that let our deputies and professional staff focus on public safety,” he said.
Retirement roulette?
If the stakes were high for the county, they were even higher for the individual employee, because CalPERS might seek to recover the money already paid out from their pension.
“At the end of the day, I’m not comfortable playing Russian roulette with an employee,” said Briese.
“Because CalPERS not coming after the sheriff or the county, CalPERS will come after the employee and their pension,” Briese said.
If a retired annuitant had been working for Mariposa County for 12 years, while receiving an annual pension of $50,000, CalPERS could try to recover the entire $600,000 they had received, county officials said.
And that is not just theoretical.
The CalPERS claw back
Seven years ago, CalPERS sued four retired annuitants, who went to work as independent contractors for various municipalities in California. One of those workers was a finance employee from Fremont who retired in 2011 and was ordered to repay $660,000 in benefits.
The case was settled in April. But the settlement, and a related administrative law judge’s decision, did little to clarify the rules about working after retirement.
The administrative law judge found CalPERS violated a three-year statute of limitations in trying to claw back pension payments.
Attorney’s for the defendants wrote a letter to the pension board urging it to adopt the administrative legal decision.
“Lacking transparency, CalPERS staff practices have, at times, appeared to create underground regulations and inconsistent processes,” the defense lawyers wrote.
In November 2024, CalPERS conducted a formal audit of 24 public agencies.
In September 2025, the Sacramento Police Department had to let go 41 retired police officers because of the retired annuitant issue.
The Riverside County Sheriff, and former gubernatorial candidate, Chad Bianco, is dealing with the issue as well, Briese relayed.
Mariposa County government officials referred several times to their episode as an “audit” by CalPERS, but in a statement to the Mariposa Gazette, the agency dismissed that characterization.
“CalPERS has not conducted a formal audit of the County of Mariposa. CalPERS has been in communication with the county regarding post-retirement employment laws that apply when CalPERS retirees work for the county,” said a CalPERS spokesperson in a statement.
“CalPERS did not prohibit the hiring of any employees. Rather, we are focused on educating the employer about the rules governing the hiring of retired annuitants,” the statement said.
CalPERS on speed dial
Indeed, once Mariposa County government officials, including Lynch and Briese, began talking directly to CalPERS Division Chief Brad Hanson, the urgency seemed to evaporate.
By Friday, July 17, the crisis was over.
“They basically apologized for putting everyone on alarm,” said Lynch of CalPERS. “But they were pleased they got our attention.”
“They just wanted to work with us to make sure that we weren’t just putting people in positions and leaving them there. That there was an actual plan,” Lynch said.
CalPERS is fine with Mariposa County retaining all 23 workers, but they will now be rehired annually with changes to the paperwork.
Rather than having clearly codified rules, CalPERS has a “guidance document” that limits retired annuitants to working a maximum of 960 hours per fiscal year.
Under CalPERS guidance, a retired annuitant can hold a job for a “limited duration.” But limited duration is not defined. Lynch said the county was thinking two to three weeks, but CalPERS said a limited duration can actually be two to five years.
“One of our concerns was that each one of us that called CalPERS got a different answer,” Lynch said.
Of the county’s 23 retired annuitants, most of the employees have only been with the county for a couple years. But four are longer term employees, with one person working for the county for 19 years post-retirement.
Lynch said all 23 employees will have their agreements with the county terminated and they will be rehired with more detailed paperwork regarding the anticipated duration of their employment and why their skills are particularly sought after.
CalPERS gave the county assurances that its workers’ pensions are safe and there is no financial risk to the employee.
“Now that we know their process we will follow it to a T,” Lynch said. “They were happy with our answers and we were happy with theirs.”
But CalPERS has effectively put the county on notice about the potential peril of hiring retired employees.
“If the message was you guys need to start paying attention to this, they were successful,” Lynch said.
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