Steve Rieger, a former Republican state legislator who is currently on the commission, said he's not aware of any legal authority that would allow the commission to grant benefits to an elected official once out of office. Neither was City Clerk Barbara Gruenstein, who Rieger said essentially acts as the staffer for the salaries commission.
Decisions of the commission do not require Assembly approval, she said.
Loren Lounsbury, who was on the salaries commission in 1982, said in an interview this week he doesn't recall the Sullivan life insurance matter. Records show the commission made the decision on Feb. 24, 1982, about eight weeks after Sullivan turned over the mayor's office to his successor, Tony Knowles.
There's no evidence from the minutes that the commission weighed whether it could bestow benefits on a former official, although it did discuss the fact that Sullivan was still formally a city employee as a result of accrued leave. Assembly Member Gerry O'Connor told the commission that "the former mayor was still on the payroll as he had not taken a vacation in the last five years."
Asked Wednesday about the salary commission's authority to give benefits to a former official, Deputy City Attorney Rhonda Westover said she didn't know enough about the commission to offer an answer. But she noted the Assembly had asked the commission to take the action.
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