Erica Rocchi Brusselars said it was a little ironic that she was facing a call to resign from the county’s pension board over a $1.4 billion deficit in the fund when she herself campaigned for office to plug the hole.
The treasurer, now in her third year, made a career out of managing pension funds, and said she was equipped to lead the board as leaders finally stopped kicking the can down the road.
“To say not enough has been done in two and a half years is really an interesting critique, given that this is an issue that’s been building for two decades,” she said.
The ever-so-intriguing topic of pensions exploded into the limelight in July, when the board released an analysis of the deficit and said the county would have to come up with more than $100 million per year to bring the fund back into solvency.
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The sky-high figures triggered concerns about another tax increase, shortly after property owners had to stomach a 30% tax hike.
The call to resign came from District Attorney Stephen Zappala in an open letter he penned on Monday. He accused board members of squandering hundreds of millions of dollars, debating the issue during closed-door meetings, ignoring whistleblower complaints and demanded they cooperate with his investigation, in addition to the abolition of the board.
His demands were quickly dismissed Tuesday, with multiple council members pointing out Zappala had been in office during the 20 years of mismanagement. The county executive’s office accused him of wasting tax dollars investigating an issue that was in the process of being fixed.
“The District Attorney should focus on the facts and on the many serious responsibilities before his office instead of attacking those working to protect retirees,” Sara Innamorato, who also sits on the pension board, wrote.
SEIU Local 668 leader Steve Catanese, who represents about 20% of county workers, said he liked Zappala’s suggestion of merging the county pension funds with statewide funds, which gives workers a bigger safety net.
However, he said he doubted the state would step in to help the county.
“I don’t think anyone’s hands are completely clean on this, but if we’re going to get our hands dirty, it should be fixing the problem,” he said.
The pension board will meet Thursday to discuss the funding issue.
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