Escambia County Clerk Pam Childers jumped the gun when she sent a letter to the county demanding payments from the commissioners enrolled in the 401a plan.
- Judge William Stone made it clear in his analysis of the local retirement plan that the Florida Retirement System was hurt by the plan, not county taxpayers.
Who needs to be made whole? The county paid the same contribution regardless of the plan chosen. However, the actuarial soundness of FRS was impacted. The monies intended to fund FRS went to the participants’ retirement accounts of the commissioners and other senior managers. That needs to be remedied.
- The Florida Retirement System must review the ruling and determine how best it can be made whole and what procedures need to be followed. This is not a unilateral decision to be made Childers.
What’s next: The clerk needs to quit her theatrics and work with the county and the Florida Retirement System to shut down the 401a plan and move the funds into FRS. Also, a new supplemental plan needs to be approved for those employees 50 and older and who have 25 or more years in county government.
Oh please, Sherri. Women can’t stoop to self aggrandizing theatrics? That’s ridiculous. Calling wolf because a man calls a woman out for her overtly bombastic and boorish behavior doesn’t exactly help the equal rights cause. Pam conjuring all this psychomachia has been deplorable, and just because you can’t see through her act doesn’t mean others can’t, including other women. Her performance on Andrew McKay was the stuff of a Razzy award. The only worse stand was when she got up in front of the TDC during this debacle of her making and claimed she didn’t have to answer for her decisions on TDT, because the Board votes the money and she writes the checks. And yes, Virginia, that really did happen. That’s what nonsense this whole thing has been, fueled by personality politics with a heavy dollop of populist pandering on top.
C.J.
Please stay focused on the judge’s ruling and analysis. If you think he was wrong, then call him.
-Rick
Sherri,
I will take the hits for pointing out what the judge’s decision stated and his analysis. No one knew the 401a plan was unlawful – not you, the clerk, commissioners or the senior managers who enrolled in it. The litigation might have been avoided if the Florida Retirement System got involved earlier. Or if the parties approached the issue without playing gotcha. -Rick
I just searched the Escambia County Code of Ordinances and found no reference at all to Section 121.182, Florida Statutes, the subject of the recent litigation. That seems very odd. Sections 2-151 to 2-154 in the Code cite Section 121.055 Senior Management Service Class, Florida Statues, as authorizing a “Senior Management Optional Annuity Program.” How many county employees are in that program and why were they selected? Are any other local government employees in a similar program? Section 121.055 establishes a separate Senior Management Service Class within FRS. How many local government employees in Escambia County are within that program and why? There are a “lot” of local governments in Escambia County if you include the county, two municipalities, 13 special districts and the constitutional offices. How many employees working for each are in which retirement and supplemental benefits programs? I bet that taxpayers would like to know. I also think that taxpayers would like to know how people doing comparable jobs are paid by different local government agency employers. Escambia County posts “total wages” for all county employees online up through FY 22. Why not FY 23 and why not include the cost of all benefits too? Do other local governments post this data for the public to see? If not, they should.
Ok, so does this force FRS to add AtWill and Executives who are elected to be included in the FRS?
I always thought that very simply put that the FRS system is exclusive to career employees and specifically NOT for temps or contractors or non-career workers?
Are County Commissioners now career employees?
Rick, stop the sexist comments such as describing the Clerk as “theatrics”. You may not be aware, but the public is supportive of the Clerk, and I suspect the costly litigation is going to cost some commissioners their seats when they run or re-election.