The Sacramento Bee reports on everyone's favorite deadbeat:
Longtime trustee Charles Valdes fell a hair short of winning a sixth term on the board of the mammoth California Public Employees' Retirement System, triggering the fund's first runoff election.
Valdes, who garnered 49.82 percent of the 192,909 votes cast, would have automatically won in the past, but trustees revamped the balloting process in 2000 to require that winners receive a majority of the votes cast.
Charles Valdes has had problems:
Valdes, a senior attorney with the Department of Transportation and former president of the California State Employees Association, has headed the CalPERS Investment Committee for 13 of his 21 years as a trustee. In this role, he shapes policies and strategy that determine how the fund invests assets that now surpass $196 billion.
Yet, Valdes has struggled in his personal life with financial setbacks - twice filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization but failing each time to complete the repayment plans ordered by the court.
Great moments in public sector ethics.
