When San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White retired after 15 years leading the department, she joined the ranks of a growing financial elite — the 139 former city workers collecting pensions of more than $200,000 a year.

Most are former police and firefighter brass, and some are making more in retirement than they did when working. And it’s not only in San Francisco.

Hayes-White is receiving a pension of $311,560 a year, with cost of living increases of 2% or more each year.

“To put these high pensions into perspective, a guaranteed $200,000 annual pension for 25 years would require a nest egg of about $4 million,” said Stanford public policy professor and former Assemblyman Joe Nation.

While Hayes-White tops the list of city pensioners, she’s not even in the top 10 when it comes to the Bay Area.

Former Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff, who retired in 2009 after working for the county for 39 years, received $364,337 in pension payments in 2018.

Former Alameda County Sheriff’s Capt. Michael Peterson, who retired in 2006, received $338,413.62 in pension benefits last year.

And former County Auditor-Controller Patrick O’Connell, who retired in 2016, gets $323,878.32 from the Alameda County Employees Retirement Association.

In Contra Costa, retired county physician Hye Kyung Kim receives $337,649 a year.

The basis for pension payouts varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and depends on the rules in place when the person retired.

For example, before the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act went into effect in 2013, county workers and executives were allowed to roll certain payments, such as unused sick leave, vacation and car allowances, into their base pay, which was used to calculate their final pension amounts. That’s no longer allowed.

Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi, who is covered by the old rules, receives an annual base salary of $339,431. But should she retire, her pension would be more than $500,000 when her other pay, including a car allowance, is factored in.

In general, however, the steepest payments tend to go to law enforcement and fire department brass, whose pensions can be up to 90% of their highest pay years if they have 30 years of service and are older than 55.

The road to the higher pensions began 20 years ago with a pair of bills passed by the Legislature that raised the pensions for state workers.

“Locals (unions) followed suit in 2001— and I made one of the worst votes of my career in approving AB616,” Nation said. “It permitted the extension of these same benefits to cities, special districts, counties.

“The locals argued to me that they could not complete with the state, which had just enhanced its benefits,” he said. “So almost all of us voted for it. No one raised any red flags. It was a bipartisan failure.

“Those high payouts, along with poor planning generally, put California’s pension debt at more than $1 trillion, or nearly $80,000 for every household, according to Stanford’s PensionTracker website,” Nation said. Those totals include state, county, city, special district and school district pensions.

“These $200K-and-up beneficiaries are pretty rare, but they do get people’s attention,” he added.

That’s especially true of San Francisco, where 132 of the 139 retirees with annual pensions north of $200,000 a year are police or fire veterans. With the annual increases, many are making more than before they retired.

Former San Francisco Police Chief Earl Sanders, who retired in 2003 at $216,010, has seen his pension grow to $231,461. Retired Police Chief Fred Lau, who put down his shield in 2002 when he was making $205,668 a year, now gets $220,656.

Like many retired police chiefs and law enforcement officials, Lau has continued to work while drawing his pension. After leaving the SFPD, he became federal security director with the Transportation Security Administration overseeing the Oakland, Stockton, Sonoma County and Modesto airports. In 2013, Lau became federal security director for SFO while still collecting his pension.

So far, San Francisco’s pension system is doing fine, but it still has an unfunded liability of $2.8 billion.

“But we have made considerable progress driving that number down, due to the strength of our investment returns and increased employee contributions post-2011 pension reform, said SFPD Sgt. Brian Stansbury, who serves as a trustee on the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier