Governments cut big checks at retirements

LIMA — After 26 years with the Wapakoneta Police Department, the last seven as chief, David Webb retired in 2009.  

In 2008, Webb made about $58,000. In 2009, with a salary plus a retirement payout earned from years of saved vacation, comp time and sick time, Webb’s $91,413 made him the city’s No. 1 earner, according to The Lima News’ 17th annual salary review project.

Anthony Wortkoetter retired in 2009 from the Putnam County garage. His $56,433 earned that year included a $12,673 retirement payout, giving the truck driver the last spot on the county’s top 25 earners.

State law and union contracts allow public employees to save hundreds of hours of earned time over decades of working to cash in upon retiring. Officials communicate with retirement-eligible employees to plan for the payouts and some governments maintain accounts to fund the payouts.

How much time?

Retirement payouts differ by government entity, but the Allen County Sheriff’s Office is typical in structure.

A 30-year employee earns five weeks of vacation a year, and state law allows that person to carry three times that, so that person could have 15 weeks of vacation.

Comp time does not max out; there is no “use it or lose it” provision, so a person could accrue hundreds of hours and may cash out all of it.

Also, a person can cash out 25 percent of his earned sick time, up to 240 hours, or 30 days.

The payouts are dictated by state law, sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jim Everett said, no matter if a public employee is a member of a union.

Unions can negotiate higher payouts. For example, the bargaining agreement for local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union employees at the city of Lima allows for a maximum cash-out of 65 sick days, city Human Resources Director Vince Ozier said.

The AFSCME contract sets benefits for employees in that union and also other non-union employees at the city, totaling about half the city’s employees, Ozier said.

Ozier has never seen any retirement benefits of the city’s five union contracts change in his time on the job.

“From our perspective, there have been more pressing issues, such as health care,” Ozier said. “The provisions that allow you to cash out whatever is earned over a career, that’s perceived to be of significant value to the membership. You couldn’t make those changes without giving something back.”

How governments plan

In Allen County, commissioners maintain a separate fund for general fund employees’ retirement payouts. It varies from year to year in what is budgeted and how much is spent. For example, in 2008, the county budgeted $140,000 and spent $63,000. In 2009, it budgeted $220,000 and spent $186,000. This year, $160,000 is budgeted.

The amount spent depends on how many people retire and what they have accrued, but it’s wise to put something back, Auditor Rhonda Eddy-Stienecker said.

“You have to do that,” Eddy-Stienecker said. “It’s just good planning.”

Auglaize County commissioners are considering doing the same thing. Officials there are discussing creating a retirement payout account and funding it at $100,000 a year for the next five years, Commissioner Don Regula said.

“We’re very serious about it,” Regula said. “Now, it’s handled as they come, a poor business practice. If you have an influx of people who hang it up, you could get caught.”

In Lima, retirement payouts come from individual department budgets, so department heads communicate with employees during the budget process to see who is considering retiring in the next year, Ozier said.

Still, an employee thinking he would retire could choose not to or not plan to but then decide to, Ozier said.

Other solutions

When county finances would allow, Allen County Sheriff Sam Crish would favor an optional annual comp time cash out, allowing employees to take cash for some of their comp time each year. It would help the department clear some of the mounting comp time from its books.

Crish estimates the Sheriff’s Office owes $300,000 worth of comp time to employees. In tight recession budgets, managers make do with fewer employees, which means some earning overtime and comp time when others are using comp time, sick time and vacation.

“Our comp time balance is outrageous. It’s a huge liability,” Crish said. “We like to clear it, but the problem is when you allow one employee to use some, another employee is earning it by covering for that person.”

In Lima, some union provisions allow employees to convert some unused vacation time to cash.

“Especially at the Fire Department, the chief is limited to how many people can be off at a given time,” Ozier said. “If the staffing was ideal, it wouldn’t be so much of an issue, but the reality is it’s not ideal.”

Ohio Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, R-Napoleon, favors a rewrite of Ohio pension and retirement law, but he doesn’t believe the political will is there. Wachtmann is a member of the Ohio Retirement Study Council. Many of the laws it deals with date to a time when public employees made much less than their private counterparts, and Wachtmann believes that is no longer the case.

“The change needs to happen in Columbus, but it will be tackled only with a hue and cry from the public,” Wachtmann said. “The system is over-generous when compared to private retirement and pension programs.”

SALARY PROJECT NOTEBOOK

Six figures

For the first time, the salary project includes a searchable database at http://www.limaohio.com/sections/infocenter/.

The list includes 3,805 names from 23 government entities, from the highest paid employee making $124,451 to the lowest paid employee, who made $8. Thirty six of those 3,805 make at least $100,000.

Payday

Salaries can vary from 2008 to 2009 because of how the calendar fell. While some government entities saw 27 pays in 2008, others did not experience them until 2009, depending on paydays. Typically, employees receive only 26 paydays in a year.

Not on the list, but still paid

Lima Finance Director Steve Cleaves was on the city payroll only for December of 2009, so he doesn’t show up on the city’s list top 25 list. He was paid through a contract for nearly all of 2009, and was paid a total of $107,340 through that contract, which included some work done in 2008.

Generally, but not always

While many government salaries are paid from general funds, many others are not, especially at the county level. For example, judges are paid from a combination of local and state dollars. Also, entities such as a county job and family services department have separate funding streams. All salaries are paid from public tax dollars, however.