Wednesday, April 19, 2000
Lebanon, state in tiff over retirement buyouts
Money city paid two workers is at issue
BY Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — The state retirement system has refused to give back to Lebanon $280,000 the city paid toward the early retirements of the former city auditor and electric department director.
Despite local outrage — including from City Council — about the buyouts, it's Lebanon that's not following the law, the Public Employees Retirement System said in a letter this week.
City Council voted in March to ask PERS — which administers retirement plans — to send back the $280,000 on the grounds that only union members in the electric department were eligible for the buyouts.
Neither Debbie Biggs, former auditor, nor Robert Newton, former department director, were members of the union.
But it's against state law to distinguish between union and nonunion members in retirement incentive plans, PERS supervisor Craig Scholz said in his letter.
City attorney Mark Yurick said Tuesday that city officials will have to regroup, but he plans to keep fighting to reclaim the money.
“I'm not going to just let it go,” he said.
The city might yet get at least some of the money back: The PERS letter said Mrs. Biggs might not have been an electric department employee, in which case she could be barred from taking the buyout.
But part of Mrs. Biggs' pay came from the department's budget, her lawyer said in a letter to PERS.
“It is difficult to understand how the city of Lebanon can state that she rendered regular services to and for the department and was compensated by the department but was not a part-time employee of the department,” Thomas Kahle wrote.
If Mrs. Biggs had known the city didn't consider her eligible for the buyout, Mr. Kahle said, “she would have continued to work an additional six months to be eligible for full retirement benefits.”
The city wants to change its position, he said, but his client can't take back her decision to retire.
Mr. Newton's attorney, Tom Intili, welcomed PERS's decision declining to return the money to the city.
“Obviously, we think PERS's analysis is the correct one,” Mr. Intili said.
But Mr. Yurick said he's dumbfounded. He's especially concerned that Mrs. Biggs and Mr. Newton approved their own and each other's buyout applications — forms that are legal contracts, Mr. Yurick said.
“I kind of feel like myself and the City Council are the only people for whom this is a problem, and I don't understand that,” he said.
A third recipient of the buyouts — retired city attorney Bill Duning — withdrew from the plan after the controversy arose, freeing PERS to return money paid on his behalf.
The case was referred in January to the Ohio Ethics Commission, which has not taken action.
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