I think I found a solution to the pension problems faced by California, other states, and many California cities.

Basically, it would work like this:

1. When a public employee retires with a pension, their job must remain unfilled until they pass away and/or stop drawing the pension.

2. If the pension is less than their old salary, the excess can be used to backfill the position.

3. If the pension is higher than their old salary due to pension spiking, saving up 30 years of sick days or working excessive overtime over the course of the last year, the excess must be deducted from the department's budget.

There are a number of reasons public employee pensions are bankrupting California and other states, but I'll explain it like I'm talking to a five year old for the simple math behind it all:

If you get a job at 18, and then at 38 decide to retire and collect 90% of your salary, and then we hire another 18 year old, we're now paying 190% for one person's worth of work. If the new guy retires at 38, and the old guy is alive and kicking at 58, and we hire another 18 year old, we're' suddenly paying 280% for a single position. If we hire a fourth 18 year old in 20 years, we've now got a retired 38, 58, and 78 year old all pulling from the same resource... or 370% of the money is being spent on the single position. This is ignoring the high COLA increases and laughably unplanned for increase in health care costs.

So close the position and when person #1 kicks the bucket, hire away. Until then, let the department pick up the rest of the slack. Do it for the greater good.