Apodaca: These allegations are not past their sell-by date

Sometimes while digging through my refrigerator I come across an iffy artifact past its sell-by date. If it doesn’t pass the smell test, into the trash it goes.

Like my forgotten fridge items, a new allegation that years ago Newport-Mesa School District officials might have improperly attempted to finagle higher retirement benefits for the then-superintendent gives off a suspicious whiff of foul odor.

But before we consign this recent revelation to the garbage bin of forgotten history, it definitely warrants more sniffing around.

This latest allegation involves a possible attempt at what’s known as “pension spiking,” the practice of boosting reported compensation in an employee’s final years so that person may receive an inflated pension after retirement.

The alleged beneficiary was none other than former Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard, who was dismissed by the school board in 2012 after his conviction on two felony counts of misappropriating public funds during his previous job as head of the Beverly Hills Unified School District. (The convictions were overturned on appeal.)

This old-but-disturbing allegation was made by John Caldecott, NMUSD’s former head of human resources, who has taken on the district power structure in an attempt to get to the bottom of what he suspects were more recent irregularities in salary reports to the California State Teachers Retirement System, otherwise known as CalSTRS.

Caldecott, you may recall, has alleged that while he was HR chief he repeatedly questioned what he feared might be attempts to inflate retirement benefits through improper salary reports to the retirement agency.

He says his questions to Supt. Fred Navarro and other district officials went unanswered, and on at least one occasion he was warned in writing by one administrator to back off “unless you’d like to personally collect a set of whistles, the blowing of which will hurt your colleagues.”

The unnamed administrator also seemed to suggest that any problems would be fixed going forward.

Days after filing a lawsuit to compel the district to make public the relevant records, Caldecott was fired, he believes without cause.

Earlier this month, an Orange County Superior Court judge denied his request to order NMUSD to release the documents, saying that a court order was unnecessary because Caldecott already had the documents in his possession.

The judge also said that the records were linked to Caldecott’s claim against Navarro, alleging a hostile and abusive work environment, making the documents exempt from disclosure because they relate to an internal personnel matter.

Caldecott has vowed to keep fighting for disclosure of the documents, saying the public has a right to know if the district was playing fast and loose with its salary reports.

He said he’s pursuing the matter through legal channels in part because he could face potential liability issues if he releases all the records unilaterally, and that any privacy concerns could be handled by redacting names.

Separately, on May 15, CalSTRS apparently released some other documents as part of an audit requested by Caldecott. It is these records that contain the bombshell about former superintendent Hubbard.

The allegation of pension spiking stems from a request approved by the NMUSD board in the 2010-11 school year to convert Hubbard’s annual $20,000-a-year annuity to a merit pay increase.

The move, which Caldecott believes was not properly listed as a board agenda item prior to its approval, would have enlarged the amount calculated into Hubbard’s retirement benefits.

CalSTRS later denied the change. In a letter to Hubbard dated July 5, 2012, copies of which were made available to news organizations by Caldecott, a CalSTRS official acknowledged that Hubbard “did not plan to retire early.”

However, the official wrote, “Because you received this increase at the end of your career, the last two years, CalSTRS concludes that this remuneration was paid for the principle purpose of enhancing your benefit.”

Consequently, Hubbard’s annual monthly retirement benefit was reduced by $664.69 a month, to $9,949.35. He was also ordered to reimburse past overpayment.

The newly released documents have led Caldecott to voice another suspicion. He believes that the Hubbard issue is one of the reasons the district has fought so vigorously to keep all the pension documents from a public airing.

Is he right? Are district officials fighting Caldecott because they truly have something to hide? Or are there perfectly reasonable explanations that we have yet to hear for all the issues that so concern the former H.R. chief?

NMUSD officials did not respond to my e-mailed questions. Board President Martha Fluor replied that she would forward my email to attorney Spencer Covert, but I had not heard from him by my deadline.

Many answers still elude us, yet this much is clear: We citizens who pay our taxes rightly hold our public school leaders to high ethical standards.

We’ve heard the claims that district officials and board members can’t comment because the issues Caldecott raises relate to confidential personnel matters, but at some point we deserve a full and fair accounting.

Caldecott has appealed the court’s decision to deny his request for release of all relevant records, and he remains confident that he will prevail.

In the meantime, the rest of us are left to ponder just how stinky the whole mess will be once that refrigerator door is finally pried open.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.