There's no suggestion that fraud was involved, but when a public pension system strives so hard to keep its Hawaiian luxury housing secret it inspires curiosity.
Minutes of the board of directors of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System meeting of December '06 mention a previous $18 million investment with Knudson Luxury Housing, which is owned by the pension system. An additional $14 million investment was approved at the '06 meeting for purchase of real estate in Hawaii.
Someone who isn't identified in the various articles and documents wanted some followup information and filed an open records request about Knudson Luxury Housing and two individuals who also aren't named. The pension system delivered some but not all of the information requested. But an Assistant Attorney General in a letter ruling said the pension system had to disclose most of the information they wanted to keep secret.
So the pension system filed suit for a declaratory judgment. They claim information pertaining to real estate contracts, marketing and pricing, if released, would materially affect the value of the property. And they say identifying the tenants would violate their expectation of privacy. So they seek a court ruling allowing them to withhold the information.
The pension system's claim does make some sense. But if it turned out that some of the key players are getting sweetheart deals for luxury Hawaiian vacations then the public would never know.
The concept of a quasi governmental entity -- which in this case appears to be 7/8 taxpayer funded -- to be delving in the luxury rental business is a bit disquieting. And it certainly is a good argument for scrapping those old municipal pension plans and replacing them with self directed 401(k) type programs that civilians have used for decades.
This story comes to us by way of Texaswatchdog.org along with Courthousenews.com.
Hi George. Yes you are right. The pension system's claim does make some sense. But if it turned out that some of the key players are getting sweetheart deals for luxury Hawaiian vacations then the public would never know.
Posted by: info arbi | October 20, 2012 at 12:37 AM