A caller identified as John Holden told the Board he had sought records about a potential merger of the Golden Gate Transit Amalgamated Retirement Plan (GGTARP) into CalPERS and said his public records request (PRA) was denied. Holden said he requested records in July and was denied by Brad Pacheco citing "government's section 7922," and he urged CalPERS to perform a "forensic audit" of the plan’s books before any merger.

Holden said he is a plan participant and expressed concern that the GGTARP may be "severely underfunded" and that legal responsibility for plan content and performance was unclear among involved parties. He provided a PRA tracking number (9072) and asked the board for transparency.

The Risk and Audit Committee heard Holden’s comments and took the procedural step of asking the director/CEO to respond directly to his PRA. Committee chair Malia Cohen noted the committee had heard public comment on "agenda item 4C, which was the quarterly status report," and specifically asked staff to follow up regarding Holden's PRA.

Why it matters: Takeover or merger of an outside retirement plan into CalPERS would carry actuarial, legal and financial implications for members and employers. The caller asked for more transparency and recommended a forensic audit, while the committee asked staff to respond to the PRA request and flagged related documents for committee attention.

What the board did: The Risk and Audit Committee requested that the director/CEO respond to the PRA and indicated the committee will review related materials at its November meeting, when the independent auditors’ report and management letter will also be considered.

Next steps: CalPERS staff were asked to respond to the PRA requester directly and to provide the committee with materials related to the plan for the Nov. 14 Risk and Audit Committee meeting.