Daily Outtakes: Other 401a participants unlawful

County Clerk Pam Childers has sent a letter demanding the Escambia County Commissioners immediately repay the contributions she made to the county’s local retirement plan (401a) in the wake of Judge William Stone’s ruling that it was unlawful for them to participate and that the contributions constituted unlawful compensation.

• However, the clerk failed to point out to the media that the judge also determined that other participants had been unlawfully included in the retirement plan, including possibly even some of her employees.

In the 18-page ruling, Judge Stone pointed out the law that granted county commissions the authority to create local retirement plans that were for county personnel who are:

• 50 years of age or older
• with 25 or more years of creditable service.
• Counties may also purchase annuities for up to 5 years of out-of-state service.

Childers needs to review the eligibility of all participants, current and past, and determine whether they met these requirements of Section 121,182, F.S. when they signed up.

But other participants may also need to repay the county because Judge Stone wrote that the law granted the authority only for supplement plans.

He wrote, “The Local Plan acts as a replacement or alternative plan to what is offered through FRS, and therefore, it is not a supplemental plan. The evidence does not show that the County invested funds, purchased annuities, or provided supplemental retirement programs for purposes of providing annuities for county personnel.”

Childers needs to issue a full 401a plan report listing all the ineligible participants and what they owe the county.

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Drop Over-the-Top Comments

Whenever Judge Stone ruled about the legality of Escambia County’s 401a retirement plan, we expected whoever won the points of law would gloat some and take a victory lap.

• We knew the county clerk had long had animosity for Commissioner Lumon  May that goes back years ( Read “City of Grudges” to understand how such hatred smolders).
• Childers also blames Commissioner Steven Barry for the board firing County Administrator Janet Gilley. Even though she owed her job to Barry, Gilley had been whining about him to Childers and whoever would listen to her for months.

However, County Clerk Pam Childers went over the top when she talked to the Pensacola News Journal, claiming the commissioners had “evil” intentions.

• No one – not the commissioners or all the other ineligible participants – was evil for joining a plan that had been in effect for 24 years. They would not have signed up for it if any of them knew their participation was unlawful.

The clerk needs to come up with a plan to help all the participants withdraw the funds from the unlawful 401a plan, repay the county for the excess contributions,  and move their retirements into the Florida Retirement Plan,

No more grandstanding, please.