More than five hundred former high-level Orange County employees are collecting six-figure pensions – as much as $244,000 per year.

Those top-paid pensioners pocketed nearly $60 million in 2009 from the financially troubled Orange County Employees Retirement System.

The 515 top retirees, just 4 percent of all county pensioners, got 13 percent of all benefits, according to an Orange County Register analysis.

Click here to search online database of retirees here.

The percentage of Orange County retirees receiving $100,000 or more is nearly three times the proportion in the statewide California Public Employees Retirement System.

“What that shows is the Ponzi scheme of the benefits,” said Marcia Fritz, president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, a pension reform group. “The high-paid, low-turnover employees are getting the goodies.”

OCERS released the information June 30 after losing a lawsuit brought by Fritz’ group. The Register had been demanding the information under the California Public Records Act for more than a year, and filed a brief in support of the lawsuit.

The Register analysis showed that 515 county retirees were in the “100,000 club” in 2009 out of 12,244 pensioners. The average retiree gets $37,000 a year.

The large pensions are all legal and largely the product of retirement formulas approved by policy-makers during good economic times. The generous pension plans have encouraged employees to retire earlier with a larger share of their salaries – pushing OCERS long-term debt to $3.7 billion. The tax-guaranteed pensions come from employee contributions, contributions by the government agencies and retirement system investments.

Fritz has a theory why the $100,000 list was riddled by manager after manager.

“The people that negotiate those benefits are negotiating for themselves (too),” Fritz said.

Fifteen Orange County pensioners are set to collect at least $200,000 in 2010, with former Orange County Sanitation District finance director Gary Streed topping the list at $20,363 a month in May, or $244,359 yearly. Former Orange County Chief Executive Officer Michael Schumacher collected $19,929 in May, or $239,150 annually.

Streed said his No. 1 status is merely the product of working 38 years for the same agency. Streed noted that he left two years shy of securing 100 percent of his salary.

“I went to work, I stayed at work and this is what I get for it,” said Streed, 64. “I just followed the rules.”

Current county Chief Executive Officer Thomas Mauk said he is troubled by the high numbers, noting that Orange County, like many other municipalities, is struggling with runaway pensions, budget deficits and a down economy.

“Pension reform is necessary and it should come faster than it is, so let’s all get to the table,” Mauk said. “Everybody feels that way.”

Orange County’s $100,000 pension club collected $58.5 million in 2009, with one-third of the money going to sheriff’s department retirees, by far the most of any agency in the retirement system. The department is less than one-fifth of the county’s workforce.

Public safety workers can retire at age 50 with 90 percent of their income – a formula called “3 at 50” – the most lucrative of all retirement plans.

Until this year, Orange County sheriff’s sworn employees did not pay toward their retirement benefits.

“Most people should be able to retire at 60 percent of their salaries. You don’t need 100 percent,” said County Supervisor John Moorlach, a long-time opponent of large public pensions. Since 2008, the county – led by Moorlach – has been suing the sheriff’s union to roll back the “3 at 50” plan for retroactive retirees.

The release of the retirement data ends a yearlong battle by the Register with OCERS for the information. In June, Orange County Superior Court Judge Luis Rodriguez ruled that the information should be released under the California Public Records Act to “expose corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism.” Rodriguez was the third judge in California to rule that the retirement information is public, joining jurists in Contra Costa and Stanislaus counties.

Many other public retirement agencies, including the giant Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System released their retirement data months ago. But OCERS continued to insist that the public records law did not apply to its pension data.

The Register’s analysis of retirees earning $100,000 or more found a number of executives who were forced from their jobs – including two convicted and sentenced to jail. There were also “double-dippers’ who substantially increased their incomes by taking another high-paying government post after retirement and several ex-employees who are currently suing the county for wrongful termination.

Among the top 10 highest paid retirees is convicted ex-Sheriff Michael S. Carona, who in May received $18,121, putting him on track to collect at least $217,457 annually. Carona resigned in 2008 after being indicted on federal corruption charges. He was convicted of one charge of witness tampering and sentenced to 5.5 years in federal prison. He is free on appeal.

Joining Carona among the top paid is disgraced county treasurer Robert Citron, who led Orange County into what remains as the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation in 1994. While Citron took no money for himself, he was convicted of skimming $89 million in interest from schools and other agencies, putting the money on the county books to hide his risky investments. Citron received $12,360 in pension benefits in May, for a projected $148,327 annually.

County CEO Mauk said he has a problem with huge retirements going to public officials who commit crimes on the job.

“If you’ve been convicted of a felony, it ought to be taken into account,” he said. “I don’t have the answers, but it ought to be on the table for discussion.”

Other high-paid retirees left their jobs under a cloud.

Former Assistant Sheriff Dennis LaDucer was fired in 1997 amid allegations that he sexually harassed and groped female sheriff’s employees. The county paid more than $1 million to settle five harassment lawsuits against him, according to a 1999 report in the Los Angeles Times. As one of the top retirees, LaDucer got $10,251 in May, for a projected annual $123,012.

Another former assistant sheriff, Charles Walters, was in charge of the jails in October 2006 when inmate John D. Chamberlain was killed while a guard watched television. Walters is the third highest paid pensioner, collecting $19,332 in May, for an annual rate of at least $231,990. Grand jury testimony revealed that, under Walters, deputies at Theo Lacy jail enlisted inmates as enforcers, slept at their posts and failed to make their rounds. Walters was never accused of any wrongdoing.

Also collecting hefty pensions are two more sheriff’s executives who were forced out of their jobs in the backlash surrounding the Chamberlain killing. Former undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky is set to collect at least $131,628 annually, while former assistant sheriff Steve Bishop will receive at least $202,615. Both top-tier sheriffs executives were accused of not being fully truthful in their testimony before a special grand jury investigating the Chamberlain slaying.

Galisky has filed a discrimination suit against the county, seeking more money in damages.

Former county counsel Benjamin DeMayo caused a stir after he retired last year and cashed out $352,097 in unused leave. DeMayo also is one of the highest paid retirees, receiving $18,798 in May, for an annual rate of at least $225,580. The high cashout was allowed because DeMayo worked for the county since before 1977, when there was no limit on how much leave could be amassed.

One of the most criticized, but legal, practices among pensioners is to retire and go to work for another government agency, thus collecting a pension and a salary, a practice known as double-dipping.

Even Gary Streed, the county’s highest paid retiree, draws the line at double-dipping.

“The day I retired, I committed to not doing anything I would be paid for. I didn’t think it was right,” Streed said.

Others don’t have that problem.

Jan Sturla, former head of Orange County Child Support Services, became an expert at squeezing dollars out of deadbeat parents – so good that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him in 2008 to head the California Department of Child Support Services. In May, he collected $15,980 in Orange County retirement benefits, amounting to at least $191,770 a year. That’s on top of the $142,965 that he makes with the state.

Sturla declined an interview for this story.

Newly retired Orange County Fire Authority Deputy Chief Patrick McIntosh picked up $15,192 in pension benefits in May, putting him in line to collect at least $182,304 over the next year. McIntosh also earns another $204,880 as the new chief of the Huntington Beach Fire Department – more than doubling his compensation.

McIntosh said his financial arrangement is not costing the fire authority or Huntington Beach any more money.

“I don’t think any reasonable person would suggest I be denied the benefits I worked for and contributed to over a 27-year public service career at OCFA and its predecessors,” McIntosh said. “By the same token, who would benefit by telling the city it can’t hire the fire chief it wants?”

Jack Dean, who publishes a pension reform website at pensiontsunami.com, said double-dippers are misusing the retirement system.

“The system is supposed to be set up so people are comfortable when they can no longer work, not to set up a lavish lifestyle at 55,” Dean said. “

Contact the writer at 714-796-6930 or tsaavedra@ocregister.com