Detroit’s Public Pension Trustees Undergo “Continuing Education” in Hawaii While the City Burns

Everyone knows the sad state of affairs that has befallen the city of Detroit over the past generation or so, with the finishing touches put on during the financial crisis as a result of punitive swaps sold by Wall Street and incredible corruption throughout the bureaucratic class.  However, rest assured that doesn’t stop the city’s public pension fund trustees from spending $22,000 in retirement system funds on a “continuing education” trip to a four-star resort in Hawaii.

We’ve seen this argument before.  I covered it late last year when I wrote a piece about how law lawmakers and lobbyists took extravagant trips together to Hawaii, Brazil, China, Australia and New Zealand. The one common defense put forward with regard to these boondoggles is that they need to learn information in order to “do a better job.”  If that’s the case and these trips are so effective, I have a question.  Why are things so screwed up?

From Reuters:

(Reuters) – The city of Detroit may be facing a deepening financial crisis but that hasn’t stopped four trustees of its public pension funds from spending $22,000 of retirement system funds to attend a conference in Hawaii this week.

The trip 4,500 miles west to a four-star resort on the world-famous Waikiki Beach in Honolulu doesn’t sit well with the top officials now running Detroit’s finances under an emergency order from the state of Michigan. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr has not ruled out a bankruptcy as the city struggles under a $15 billion debt burden, which is being strained further by its hefty pension obligations.

“It especially doesn’t look good when you have city employees, police, firefighters having taken pay cuts,” said Bill Nowling, spokesman for Orr. “Middle-class, blue-collar workers, their dream vacation when they retire may be a two-week trip to Hawaii – they don’t associate Hawaii with a place you go to work.”

John Riehl, a senior sewage plant operator and 34-year Detroit employee, is one of the four. The cost fell within continuing education guidelines set by the legislature, he said.

“It’s one of these things we trustees must do to stay on top of the field,” Riehl said. “It’s important that we participate in these conferences. The stakes are too high.”

The stakes are too high!  Sounds like a Department of Homeland Security bureaucrat who wants to justify buying a bigger budget to buy more hollow point bullets.

Usually the conference captures little outside attention. This year, though, it has faced criticism for its choice of venue, the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort with its five-acre salt-water lagoon, five swimming pools, and flamingos, penguins and turtles.

Some funds boycotted the event, saying it sent the wrong message, particularly at a time when many pension systems face funding shortfalls and the finances of the cities and states that sponsor them remain on shaky ground.

Now for the kicker…

One well-attended session covered how to avoid front-page scandals. 

That session should have been the shortest session in the history of conferences.  One piece of advice:  Don’t attend boondoggles in Hawaii when your city is bankrupt.

Full article here.

In Liberty,
Mike

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