Some revelations in yesterday's pension report by Vinson & Elkins LLP:
City Treasurer Mary Vattimo, in a handwritten memo dated March 13, 2003, said one projection that was never made public put the pension deficit at $5 billion by 2021. It's now $1.17 billion. The "numbers are staggering," she wrote.
On Sept. 12, 2003, bond counsel Paul Webber, of the international law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, proposed disclosing the pension deficit at $1 billion. In an e-mail to Deputy City Manager Pat Frazier three days later, Vattimo wrote: " . . . this disclosure is OVERKILL."
Webber felt city officials withheld pension liabilities from him. In a Jan. 26, 2004, e-mail to Webber, Vattimo wrote: "When have we hidden anything from Orrick? . . . I think we all need a rest from each other."
Retirement board member Cathy Lexin, the city's human resources director, said a city threat to the retirement board that benefit increases would be canceled if the board did not bless a 2002 underfunding deal "was no more than a bluff."
