Last weekend, the Los Angeles Times reported that before being appointed as Los Angeles’ new police chief, Michael Moore “took a brief, highly unusual retirement” that allowed him to rejoin the police department while claiming “a financial windfall: a lump sum retirement payment of $1.27 million from the city.”
That’s because of Moore’s enrollment in an unusual program that allows what amounts to double-dipping, one that has “paid out more than $1.6 billion in extra pension checks to Los Angeles police and firefighters since its inception in 2001,” the Times reported, adding, “Officers don’t have to work extra hours or perform extra duties to receive the money; it’s a reward for longevity.”
Other examples of self-serving official boondoggles abound, such as the Legislature’s manipulating its schedule so that members receive $192 per day in tax-free “per diem” to cover their living expenses seven days a week – nearly $6,000 a month – even though they typically spend fewer than three full days in Sacramento each week.
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