The Contra Costa Law Library has discovered a $184,000 shortfall in its retirement fund, and the board is investigating 20 years of salary records to find whether improprieties have occurred.
The Contra Costa Times reported April 6 that the board hopes to avoid cutting services and hours by stretching out debt payments to the California Public Employees Retirement System. However, Director Philleatra Gaylor said the library has already had to cancel legal-journal subscriptions and may be forced to freeze employee salaries.
In a late-March memo, Gaylor told the board the shortage occurred because former director Lois Jean Steffensen failed to pay enough money into her retirement account. Gaylor also said that before she retired in 1996 Steffensen had given herself two promotions and pay increases that worsened the shortfall. In addition, the Contra Costa Times said the memo claimed that Steffensen, who has only a high-school diploma, fooled the board into approving the promotions by deleting passages citing college-degree requirements from a job description.
Posted April 12, 1999; modified March 8, 2007.