Willow Glen Resident
News
City questions unauthorized release of retired police and firefighter data
By Eli Segall
The city of San Jose is investigating the release of confidential information pertaining to retired San Jose police officers and firefighters.
The information included retirees' names, Social Security numbers, date of birth, date of hire, years of service and actuarial data on pension contributions.
The investigation was discussed publicly for the first time Feb. 1, at a San Jose Police and Fire Retirement Board hearing. At the hearing some board members learned about the investigation for the first time, while others had known about it for just a few days.
"We don't know anything about this inquiry," said vice chairman Ken Heredia. "We can't push forward until we know what the hell is going on."
The unauthorized release of information occurred in November and was discovered Dec. 5 at an arbitration hearing involving the city, the San Jose firefighters' union and Bolton Partners, the union's actuarial firm, said San Jose employee relations director Alex Gurza.
Gurza, who took part in the hearing, said he obtained a copy of the released information, but declined to say how many police officers and firefighters were on the list.
The full scope of the inquiry is still unknown, which has left some board members frustrated over what they see as a lack of communication from City Manager Les White, who authorized the investigation.
"They should at least tell people there's something going on," said Vice Mayor Dave Cortese, who sits on the retirement board. "It's all kind of weird to me."
Mark Skeen, chairman of the retirement board, an independent body that oversees pensions, asked San Jose Department of Retirement Services Director Ed Overton to send encrypted pension information to Bolton, a Baltimore-based actuarial firm.
While it is common to send this information to actuarial companies, Bolton was not authorized to view the data.
Skeen, who is also vice president of Local 230, received a letter dated Jan. 17, 2007, from Hanson Bridgett, a law firm on retainer by the city to explore the matter. The letter, signed by attorney Steven Miller, was sent to notify Skeen of an investigation into the release of information.
"The investigation," he wrote, "concerns the disclosure by the San Jose Retirement Department of information concerning retirement plan members. It has been alleged that such disclosure was made at your instruction."
White approved an inquiry into what happened 30 to 45 days ago.
"I authorized the investigation to find out why the information was leaked in the first place," White said. "This is not an investigation into Mark Skeen himself."
Overton, director of retirement services, is preparing a letter to notify retirees affected by the leak. City officials are concerned the data may be widely disseminated; Bolton has already released the information to some members of the firefighters' union, IAFF Local 230.
"Our attorney spoke with the Local 230 attorney," Gurza said. "They assured us they haven't done anything with the data."
City Attorney Rick Doyle said he was unaware of the scope of the investigation, but added it was a city personnel matter, not an issue of the retirement board as a whole.
"We're just trying to figure out what happened, why it happened, and who released it," Doyle said.
