There is nothing more infuriating to me than adult predators who exploit and sexually abuse children.
As a former president of the board of a summer camp, I know that it had to pay high premiums for liability insurance. Not for the mud bowl, not for rock climbing or rappelling, and not for the pool. It was expensive because of the high number of claims for child molestation in that industry that had to be borne by all the other policyholders. And having the insurance is a must, as one huge claim could wipe out an entire organization.
Sexual predators not only affect the price of summer camp, but they also do the same for school districts, juvenile halls, and social services providing foster care. Because some governments have not acquired adequate insurance for those services in which employees interact with children, the costs are then borne by the taxpayers within the boundaries of the municipality.
In recent years, to address this abhorrent crime, you and I have become indirectly liable for the perpetrators. All that could be done was to hope that this reprobate behavior was not as prevalent as suspected. However, recent legislation upped the ante.
Five years later, I predicted that increasing public employee defined benefit pension plan benefit formulas by 50 percent, retroactive to the date of hire, would be another fiscal challenge for California and its cities, schools, and counties. Senate Bill 400 in 1999, pushed by the California Highway Patrol’s employee union, was the culprit of the beginning of what would become a massive squeeze on the Golden State’s municipal budgets.
Since that time, the cities of Vallejo, San Bernardino, and Stockton have filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection because of the unaffordable unfunded actuarial accrued liabilities that were created.
“This bill extends the time for commencement of actions for childhood sexual assault to 40 years of age or five years from discovery of the injury; provides enhanced damages for a cover up, as defined, of the assault; and provides a three-year window in which expired claims would be revived.”
This was a massive change to existing law at that time, which had “[provided] that in an action for recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual abuse, the time for commencement of the action shall be within eight years of the date the plaintiff attains the age of majority or within three years of the date the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered that psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority was caused by the sexual abuse, whichever period expires later.”
The analysis concluded that there would be no costs. Wrong.
Out of courtesy, it did state that there may be “potentially significant workload cost pressures to the court [system] to adjudicate cases filed within the expanded statute of limitations that otherwise would have been time barred.”
“While the superior courts are not funded on a workload basis, an increase in workload could result in delayed court services and would put pressure on the General Fund to fund additional staff and resources,” the analysis reads.
It also mentioned that there may be “potentially major out-year costs to local school districts to the extent litigation is successfully brought outside the current statute of limitations and/or the districts are liable for treble damages. Additionally, to the extent an extended statute of limitations affects liability insurance premiums, school districts could experience unknown, potentially significant costs related to procuring liability insurance, apart from any specific claims.”
As a California state senator in the 37th District, I warned my colleagues on the Senate Floor that approving the extension of the statute would result in another fiscal train wreck in slow motion. I was certainly for helping victims, but I was concerned about the financial repercussions that would have to be borne by the taxpayers.
What makes this story tragic is that this sexual abuse nonsense has been perpetrated by employees of taxpayer-funded governmental agencies. What makes it even more tragic is that trying to address the psychological damage done to the victims will probably bankrupt many of California’s cities, counties, and school districts.
For the county of Los Angeles, it may come to its financial knees. Should Los Angeles file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, it may be able to eliminate the litigation settlement in a federal bankruptcy court. But then everyone loses. Especially the victims.
California residents are already taxed enough, and its fiscal future looks dire, as taxpayers are always the “deep pockets” that public employee union leaders depend on. Let’s hope the guilty perpetrators have their personal bank accounts cleaned out to reimburse their former employers, that their pensions are revoked to cover the litigation costs, and that they spend the remainder of their days in prison. This perversion perpetrated on children—and now our pocketbooks—must cease.
