Million-dollar candidate

Most public workers may be singing the blues about their pension systems, but at least one is going all the way to the bank. Bernie Rhinerson, chief of staff at the San Diego Unified School District, reports that last year his personal retirement account at Fidelity Investments was worth more than $1 million. On top of that, his mutual fund holdings with Vanguard Investments were valued between $100,000 and $1 million, and as a moonlighting instructor in public administration at San Diego State University he made between $1001 and $10,000. Rhinerson undertook the legally required disclosures as part of his electoral filing to become a trustee of the San Diego Community College District. A lobbyist for years with Southwest Strategies, founded by ex–Evening Tribune reporter Alan Ziegaus, Rhinerson has been in his current job since 2008. Reached by phone, Rhinerson, 60, explained that he hadn’t been enrolled in a pension fund until he took his present job and that his reported retirement stash was entirely the result of his and his wife’s personal saving over the years.