This virus is infecting local governments nation wide------Former part-time pols in Bay Area reap medical benefits at taxpayer expense

Former part-time pols in Bay Area reap medical benefits at taxpayer expense - San Jose Mercury News: "Virgil Gay, James Shattuck and Donald Bartels sat together on West Contra Costa Unified's school board way back when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon.

So why almost 45 years later are taxpayers still spending thousands of dollars a year on their health insurance?

The last of them left office in 1982, when Ronald Reagan was in his first term as president, but they are among more than 200 former officials in the Bay Area still benefiting years -- and sometimes decades -- later from what government watchdogs call a "dirty little secret'' of local elected office: taxpayer-funded medical coverage for life."