Slain Officers’ Spouses Seek End to Penalty

When Los Alamitos Police Lt. Duane Swearingen died of injuries suffered in a fight with a suspect two years ago, his wife was overwhelmed by her loss, anger and the sickening prospect of facing the mortgage and two car payments alone.

Joan Swearingen said she was almost as devastated by the government form that arrived two weeks later giving her this choice: Either agree within two years’ time never to remarry or lose 25% of her husband’s pension with the California Public Employees Retirement System. If she opted not to remarry and later did, she would lose the entire pension.

Swearingen was blindsided by the “remarriage penalty,” a pension provision for the spouses of most local public employees, including peace officers.

A bill that would abolish the controversial measure goes to a vote today in Sacramento, with a history of bipartisan support and backing from police groups, victims’ rights advocates and the Traditional Values Coalition.

The “Fairness for Families” bill--which also would ensure lifelong health benefits for spouses and orphans of slain peace officers--passed both houses last year but was vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson in October.

The full Assembly is set to vote today on whether to override the governor’s veto. The bill gained 60 bipartisan votes in the Assembly last year, six more than necessary for an override, but proponents said they fear some Republicans may now hesitate to flout Wilson’s veto.

The governor’s staff could not be reached for comment Monday.

In his veto message, Wilson said the health benefits portion of the bill was “desirable policy” that he would “happily sign.” But he said he was reluctant to abolish the decades-old remarriage penalty, which covers not only police officers but all local employees whose pensions are handled by the retirement system known as CalPERS.

“This bill would also impose a mandate on local public employers that contract with the Public Employees Retirement System to provide survivor allowances to the remarried spouses of deceased members,” Wilson wrote. “This is unnecessary and heavy-handed.”

Opponents of the bill say the measure goes too far by revoking the penalty for survivors of all public employees, not just police officers who die.

But supporters counter that the remarriage penalty already has been rescinded for state employees--including the governor and his staff--and contend that the penalty is outdated, is largely sexist and unfairly returns earned pension money to city coffers.

For survivors of deceased police officers, the debate touches on such issues as economic survival and family values, as some spouses say they have been forced to live with a new mate unwed rather than lose the pension. Those cohabitation concerns are what brought the Traditional Values Coalition on board.

Since 1912, 33 on-duty officers have been killed in Orange County, including Newport Beach Police Officer Robert J. Henry, 30, who was shot in the head during a struggle with a suspect last year. Henry left three children, ages 6, 2 and 2 weeks. His wife, Patty, must decide on the remarriage penalty within two years of her husband’s death.

Swearingen’s husband died of an aortic aneurysm caused by earlier chest trauma suffered in a fight with a suspect.

“I wasn’t working, and I had a huge mortgage,” said Swearingen, 50. “Then I got this notice, asking me to take a $700 hit every month. I was thinking, ‘I have no choice. I have to say I’ll never remarry.’ ”

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Her two-year period to weigh the remarriage penalty lapsed in December. Swearingen, who has since returned to work as an Orange police reserve officer, signed the form saying she would not remarry.

But she hopes the law will be changed and has written the governor and placed calls to her state senator, John R. Lewis (R-Orange), who voted against the bill last year.

Four other members of the Orange County delegation also voted against the bill: state Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove), Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Newport Beach), Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Irvine) and new Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

In Los Angeles, which has its own retirement system, Councilman Joel Wachs launched a campaign in October to abolish a remarriage penalty for spouses of city police officers and firefighters that was written into the City Charter in 1889.

Remarriage penalties are forbidden by the Internal Revenue Service in private-sector retirement plans, and CalPERS abolished the penalty for all state and school employees in 1989 and 1991. That includes spouses of California Highway Patrol officers killed on duty.

The penalty still applies to spouses of city police officers covered under CalPERS--the majority of small and medium-size departments across the state, said Kelley M. Moran, political action coordinator for the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California (PORAC).

CalPERS supports the bill abolishing the remarriage penalty on grounds that all spouses are legally entitled to survivor benefits, Moran said.

“It’s just the old-fashioned way of thinking: that a widow will remarry and find someone else to take care of her,” Moran said.

Many surviving spouses agree. Jean Valenzuela’s husband, 15-year Brea Police Officer Danny Valenzuela, suffered a heart attack during a training exercise last May and died, leaving two children, ages 8 and 5.

“It just seems very unfair,” Jean Valenzuela, 35, said of the remarriage decision that looms before her. “From my heart, I think that if this were a reverse situation--if this were mainly men in this situation--I don’t think it would be an issue. It just seems to unfairly penalize women.”

Valenzuela, of Chino, has been a homemaker since her 8-year-old daughter was born. She said she found herself facing questions of remarriage just one week after her husband died, in a session with Brea city officials to discuss her benefits.

“They kept saying, ‘If you remarry, when you remarry, should you remarry.’ I just burst into tears, thinking, ‘My husband died one week ago,’ ” she said.

Valenzuela and Swearingen are members of Concerns of Police Survivors, which has pushed for the legislation for several years with the help of the 39,000-member PORAC.

“This is the most important thing we ever pressed,” PORAC President Steven H. Craig said. “PORAC has never envisioned going this far on an issue. This is not anti-governor; this is not anti-Legislature. This is a nonpartisan issue of equity.”