Law Will Force Benefits Changes on Elected Officials : Retirement: Cities and agencies will need to revamp policies that allow subsidizing health care of those who leave office.

A new state law banning benefits to former elected officials will force some local cities and agencies to change policies that have allowed long-serving council members and directors to receive subsidized health care for life.

The law, signed by Gov. Pete Wilson on Friday, bars government from providing health and welfare benefits to members of elected boards of cities, counties, school districts and independent districts once the officials leave office.

The cities of Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, the Oxnard School District and the Calleguas Municipal Water District apparently will have to change their benefit plans in response. They all now pay at least part of the health insurance premiums of long-serving ex-officials, representatives said Tuesday.

Former officials already receiving such benefits can still get them under the new law. But those whose terms begin after Jan. 1 will not be eligible.

H. Jere Robings, president of Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers, hailed the new law as a victory for the public.

“The taxpayers of Ventura County are going to be spared in the future from having someone take advantage of them,” Robings said. “I’ve been ecstatic to see that someone in the state Legislature finally recognized this as a problem.”

Robings said he has lobbied for the new law since 1988, when he learned that the Ventura County Community College District board had voted members a lifetime health benefit. That policy was reversed because of the subsequent controversy.

Robings said he found generous health-care benefits were common among local boards, including those of the Calleguas and Casitas water districts.

“What we had found is that many of these boards just did as they chose to do,” he said. “It was very easy for them to pass these kinds of self-serving policies and the public never knew about it. This will preclude them doing it in the future.”

Representatives of cities and agencies that still offer former elected officials health benefits, said Tuesday that they were either ignorant of the new law or unsure of how it would affect their policies.

Calleguas board member and Treasurer Jeffrey Borenstein said the water board was already reducing its health-care costs.

“I can’t say we were going to eliminate retired board members’ benefits,” he said. “But we were moving toward this. I don’t think I have a real problem with retired members not receiving benefits.”

Only two retired Calleguas board members now receive health benefits, General Manager Don Kendall said. The district pays about $5,000 a year per member for them, he said. Those former members also have Medicare, so the Calleguas benefits are supplementary.

“I guess you can view these kinds of things as cost control,” Kendall said of the new law. “I’d have a hard time complaining about it.”

In Thousand Oaks, Personnel Director Greg Eckman said the city provides health benefits for former council members if they served more than five years and are over 50.

They first must qualify for the state Public Employees Retirement System, Eckman said. Then the city pays a health insurance premium of up to $4,800 a year.

Eckman, who was unaware of the new legislation, said he would have to review the bill before determining how it would affect the city.

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In Oxnard, employee relations manager Bruce Dandy said his city also pays for health benefits for former council members with five years service once they are 50. He said the city pays up to $192 a year for each former councilman.

“It might have an impact on us,” Dandy said. But he had not reviewed the new law, he added.

The Oxnard School District provides health benefits for former school board members if they have served for more than nine years, a spokeswoman said.

Three other large school districts--in Ventura, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks--do not provide such benefits, representatives said. The new state law accelerates a countywide trend toward fewer benefits for retired elected officials.

Previously, board members of the Casitas Water District who served for 12 years would get health benefits for themselves and their dependents. But a year ago, the board eliminated the benefit, General Manager John Johnson said.

“It didn’t seem appropriate that they have it,” Johnson said. “They felt they couldn’t support it, so they voted to drop it themselves.”

Johnson said the board had outside pressure to drop the benefit because it was seen as excessive. But he also said very few board members were eligible anyway.

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About six months ago, the Ventura County school board also dropped health benefits for former members, and for all retired employees. Only employees whose age and years of service added up to 75 were eligible.

Carmen Smith, assistant to Supt. of Schools Charles Weis, said the change was motivated by costs.

“It was the fiscally responsible thing to do,” Smith said. “So that is what they did.”