“The looming pension crisis,” an article in today’s Daily Journal [subscription] by Dan Grunfeld of Pardee RAND Graduate School, serves as a tickler to check the status of a case that was the subject of a very unusual Supreme Court order.
When it granted review in Marin Association of Public Employees v. Marin County Employees’ Retirement Association, a high-profile public-pension matter, the court made it a grant-and-hold case. Grant-and-hold orders are common. But what made the Marin Association order different was what the court is “holding” the case for. Almost always, the court will “hold” a case until the Supreme Court itself decides some other pending case that raises a similar issue. In Marin Association, however, the case is on hold until a Court of Appeal decides a different pension case — Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Association v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association.
So, what’s the status? Nothing much has happened since the Marin Association grant-and-hold order, and that was almost a year ago. The hold-up seems to be in the Court of Appeal — First District, Division Four — where the Alameda County case has been fully briefed for over 21 months with no oral argument scheduled yet.
Grunfeld’s article says the Marin Association case will address a “critical issue” dealing with a “massive [pension] funding shortfall.” And, he says, “As dire as the problem is now, it could nearly double in the next 12 years.” “Tick, tick, tick . . .,” he concludes.
It looks like there will be a lot more ticks on the Marin Association clock unless the Supreme Court loses patience waiting for the Court of Appeal to decide Alameda County. If it chooses, the high court can un-hold and proceed to decide Marin Association, and/or it could take the Alameda County case off the Court of Appeal’s hands now by transferring the matter to itself under article VI, section 12, of the state constitution.