Contra Costa Herald

News Of By and For The People of Contra Costa County, California

Rep. DeSaulnier hails $2.6 billion in COVID-relief funding for Concord-based union pension plan

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Serves over 138,000 retirees; funding from 2021 American Rescue Plan Act

By Mairead Glowacki, Communications Director, Office of Congressman Mark DeSaulnier

Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, April 2, 2026, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10) announced that the Northern California UFCW Plan, which is based in Concord, California, a city he represents, will receive $2.6 billion in pension relief funding made possible by the Democrat-passed $1.9 trillion COVID-relief American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that the Congressman was proud to vote for in 2021. This funding will enable the plan to continue to pay retirement benefits for its 138,516 participants in the service industry without reduction for many years into the future.

“In the midst of the COVID epidemic, Democrats fought tooth and nail to protect the lives and livelihoods of working Americans and their families, ultimately passing the American Rescue Plan to prevent cuts to the hard-earned benefits of retirees and workers. This funding, that will benefit hundreds of thousands of workers and retirees, including those here in our district, is a direct result of those efforts and I am proud to have helped bring this money home,” said DeSaulnier.

The application for this funding was submitted to the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program by the UFCW – Northern California Employers Joint Pension Plan (Northern California UFCW) and approved by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). The SFA Program provides funding to severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans and will ensure that millions of America’s workers, retirees, and their families receive the pension benefits they earned.

Rep. DeSaulnier is a senior member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce where he is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.

 

Glazer, Baker to discuss pension reform at Kickoff to 2018 Bipartisan Speaker Series Monday

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What: Pension Reform – Bipartisan Speaker Series

Who: State Senator Steve Glazer and Assemblywoman Catharine Baker

Date: Monday, January 22, 2018

Time: 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Citizen participation: Q & A after presentations

Where: San Ramon City Hall, Council Chamber, 7000 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon

State Senator Glazer

California’s growing pension liability is threatening California’s economic future, unless elected leaders show the courage to take on needed reforms, according to Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, and Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-Dublin, who will kick off their 2018 Bipartisan Speaker Series on the topic on Monday, January 22.

On hand will be pension expert David Crane, president of Govern for California, whose mission is to support legislators willing to tackle tough fiscal issues. Crane, also a Stanford lecturer in public policy, will speak on the economic stresses that California faces with its growing pension liabilities.

“As pension liabilities continue to soar, California faces a looming fiscal crisis that could cripple California’s ability to offer basic services,” Glazer said. “This is the sleeper issue of our time, and if we don’t act on it, we will be forced to make budgetary decisions that will create extreme hardships on families across the state.”

Assemblywoman Baker

Baker added: “Our pension system is already crowding out essential government services, and threatening our future financial health. It is our duty to put politics aside, and find a long-term solution while economic times are better. We should not kick the can down the road, and wait until economic times are worse, and the crisis deeper.”

Over the last two years, Sen. Glazer and Assemblywoman Baker have held more than a dozen bipartisan town hall meetings in an effort to break down partisan barriers to arrive at common sense solutions to California’s problems.

College district admits to overreporting employee retirement to state pension fund

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Outside investigation to begin

The Contra Costa Community College District (CCCCD) has contacted CalPERS, the state government employee pension fund, to determine what actions, if any, are required to address a situation impacting some district retirees who are CalPERS members.

The district has identified a long-standing practice of converting unused vacation to sick leave which in some cases led to retirees receiving excess service credit upon retirement.  An initial review indicates that corrections may be needed for a small subset of CalPERS retirees who retired after 2000.  An external firm will be hired to investigate this matter including the extent of the reporting errors, what corrections are required, and how the corrections should be accomplished.

The district is working to mitigate any impact on the district’s CalPERS retirees, and is taking steps to ensure this problem does not happen again.

The CCCCD is one of the largest multi-college community college districts in California serving a population of 1,019,640 people. Its boundaries encompass all but 48 of the 734-square-mile land area of Contra Costa County. The district is home to Contra Costa College in San Pablo, Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, as well as educational centers in Brentwood and San Ramon.  The district headquarters is located in downtown Martinez.