CalPERS lawsuit shows need for strict ethics rules

There are plenty of reasons why an independent examiner has just recommended stricter ethics rules for managers of the $218.8 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System.

Here's one of the best:

According to a suit filed by state Attorney General Jerry Brown, back in 2007, CalPERS board member-turned-investment broker Alfred Villalobos took one of the pension fund's senior investment officers on a private jet ride to New York to attend a Museum of Modern Art fundraiser honoring a client Villalobos was representing.

The client, Leon Black, heads the private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, which was seeking a $700 million investment from CalPERS.

According to the suit, Villalobos and the investment officer, Leon Shahinian, shared a $1,000-a-night-plus suite at the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The suit claims Villalobos' firm billed the trip to Apollo.

Sometime after, the suit claims, Shahinian touted the $700 million investment to the CalPERS board with nary a mention of the New York trip - and the deal was approved.

Shahinian was not named as a defendant in Brown's suit, which is seeking $95 million in penalties against Villalobos and CalPERS' former chief executive, Fred Buenrostro - both of whom have denied any wrongdoing.

As for Shahinian, who also maintains he did nothing wrong, he was placed on paid administrative leave over the incident and four months later resigned from CalPERS, where he was earning about $350,000 a year.

Teachers' pets: Its leaders may not have been at the head table of Gov.-elect Jerry Brown's education funding summit Tuesday, but the powerful California Teachers Association was certainly on everyone's mind when it came to talk about state spending cuts.

And with good reason:

According to a March 2010 report by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission, the 325,000-member teachers union is by far the single biggest contributor of campaign cash in California.

In the past 10 years, the union has pumped close to $212 million into helping Democratic candidates and various ballot fights.

More recently, the union spent $3.6 million helping elect Brown as governor, plus $3.7 million helping elect Tom Torlakson as state superintendent of public education.

Big catch: Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana and former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo are teaming up on more than just a proposed hotel and restaurant across from the Niners' planned Santa Clara stadium.

The dynamo football duo - along with development partner Kurt Wittek - are also behind a $300 million transit village being planned next to the South Hayward BART station, a project that includes $47 million in state bond money.

As for whether the BART transit village will actually happen?

Hayward officials say they remain optimistic, despite the economic downturn that has set back construction at least three years.

The project got a reprieve last year when the state Legislature voted to extend the deadline for using the state money from 2013 to 2016.

In other words, it's moving about as fast as that new stadium.

Job site: If there's one thing government bureaucracy is good at, it's duplication.

Take the new "local jobs" ordinance working its way through San Francisco City Hall.

The long-term goal is to carve out 355 new jobs for local residents on city-financed building projects in San Francisco. And as we reported Monday, overseeing the new rules will require the Office of Economic and Workforce Development to hire five to seven new staffers - including, over time, as many as three $116,246-a-year contract compliance officers.

What's interesting is that much the same work is already being done over at the city's Human Rights Commission, whose staff of 35 oversees fair hiring practices on city contracts.

Commission head Theresa Sparks said that, for whatever reason, her department was cut out of the planning on the local hire law.

Not so, says Supervisor John Avalos, the local-hire bill's author.

"I sent her a postcard on our plans early on. I never heard back," Avalos said.

"Who knows," Avalos added. "Maybe it hit her desk when she was out campaigning for a seat on the Board of Supervisors" - a not-too-subtle dig at Sparks' recent unsuccessful run.

EXTRA! Catch our blog at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.

Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays 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 e-mail matierandross@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle