Legislation to Require Disclosure of Campaign Donations for CA Pension Boards

(August 18, 2010) — Early this week, California lawmakers voted to require that anyone running for election to the boards of California’s largest pensions disclose their campaign contributions.

The bill, designed to improve transparency by revealing whether financial-services that want business with the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) are exerting undue influence on candidates, passed the Assembly on a 69-1 vote and will return to the Senate.

“The bill is consistent with efforts by the CalPERS board to be in synch with the filing of campaign reports as required for candidates of other state offices,” the fund’s information officer Clark McKinley told ai5000. “We believe it’s appropriate under our own good governance and transparency guidelines that existing campaign contribution limits be extended to board members as well.”

The move comes as pension officials across the country have been under intense scrutiny for their use of so-called placement agents, who offer access to pension officials in return for monetary gain. In May of last year, the $207 billion CalPERS revealed that a former board member, Alfred Villalobos, had allegedly used his access to the pension giant to make more than $60 million by helping money managers get CalPERS’ business. The fund subsequently launched an investigation into the placement agent issue, which is still ongoing.

Under the bill, SB1007, candidates would need to reveal any contribution of $5,000 or more within 10 days of receiving it, and contributions of $1,000 or more would need to be disclosed within 24 hours during the period immediately prior to an election, the AP reported. The bill would require board members of CalPERS and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the nation’s largest and second-largest public pension funds respectively, to abide by rules similar to those governing candidates running in other elections.