Public employees' retirement: retirement boards.

Existing law prohibits designated officers and employees of the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) and the Teachers' Retirement Board of the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) , who served in those positions for less than 5 years, from taking any specified action on behalf of any person, other than the state, to influence certain actions by the retirement boards or systems within 2 years after leaving that position. The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 prohibits a member or employee of a retirement board from becoming an endorser, surety, or obligor on, or from having any personal interest in the making of an investment for the board, or in the gains or profits that accrue from those investments, except as specified. That law also prohibits a member or employee of a retirement board or board of investments from selling or providing any investment product that would be considered an asset of the retirement fund to a retirement system established under that law. This bill would include a member of the board, a deputy executive officer, and an assistant executive officer among those positions subject to the 2-year postemployment restriction, and would delete the qualification that the person have served in that position for less than 5 years. The bill also would make that postemployment restriction applicable to designated officers and employees, board members, and administrators of county retirement systems and specified employees of other public pension and retirement systems. This bill would require the retirement boards of each public pension or retirement system to develop and implement, on or before June 30, 2010, a policy requiring the disclosure of payments to placement agents, as defined, in connection with system investments in or through external managers, as defined. The bill would prohibit an external manager or placement agent that violates that policy from soliciting new investments from the system for 5 years after the violation was committed, but would provide for the reduction of that prohibition as specified. The bill also would prohibit the system from entering into any agreement with an external manager that does not agree in writing to comply with the policy. The bill would require a placement agent, prior to acting as a placement agent in connection with any potential system investment, to disclose to the board all campaign contributions made by the placement agent to any elected member of the board, and all gifts given to any member of the board, during the prior 24-month period, and to disclose any subsequent campaign contribution made by the placement agent to an elected member of the board, or a subsequent gift given to any member of the board, during the time the placement agent is receiving compensation in connection with a system investment. The bill would prohibit a member or employee of the board from, directly or indirectly, by himself or herself, or as an agent, partner, or employee of a person or entity other than the board, selling or providing any investment product that would be considered an asset of the fund to any public retirement system in California. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.