Top city staffer who sued over firing can return to payroll to boost pension

There is an unusual provision in the final, signed agreement between the city of San Diego and former Deputy Chief Operating Office Alia Khouri — one that wasn’t included in the few public documents related to her $269,000 employment settlement.

After getting fired in December, Khouri will be allowed to return to the city payroll for five days for the sole purpose of purchasing additional service years for her pension. She will make $150 per day as a program manager and technically be on paid administrative leave.

That pension booster wasn’t mentioned in either the brief staff report on the deal sent Sept. 15 to the City Council, nor in the formal resolution authorizing payment of the money.

Service years are one factor in determining a city pension. Under rules for the San Diego City Employees Retirement System, or SDCERS, workers can buy additional years than they actually worked. Doing so increases the final amount of their pension. Only workers on the payroll can do so.

The pension benefits are for life.

The city agreed to pay Khouri to resolve allegations she was prepared to make in court that her termination from the city in December was retaliatory.

Khouri alleged that Paola Avila, chief of staff for Mayor Todd Gloria and one of the most influential people at city hall, targeted her for removal because Khouri had disciplined and then investigated another city employee who was romantically involved with Avila.

The allegations were laid out in an 11-page letter from Khouri’s lawyer to the council that inewsource obtained. Avila and Gloria said the allegations were “unsubstantiated” and Avila said she wasn’t romantically involved at any “relevant time.”

Khouri worked for the city for approximately 20 total years. She was paid $348,000 per year when she left. Depending on when she was actually hired, she could get 50% of her highest pay for a single year or average of three years.

If she were to purchase an additional five years, her pension would rise to 62.5% of her highest pay calculation.

It is unclear why the final settlement agreement, also obtained by inewsource from a public records request, didn’t include the pension provision.

A spokesman for City Attorney Heather Ferbert didn’t answer that question but instead said that purchasing service does not “incur additional City costs because the employee buying the service credit pays both the employee and employer contribution.”