Early-retirement fund suspended; money gone

Jeff Schweers

Friday, March 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

A fund set up to pay accrued sick and vacation leave to employees opting for the county's early retirement plan has dried up, forcing the County Commission to suspend its 8-month-old voluntary buyout program.

By a unanimous voice vote Thursday, the board suspended the program for a year, with the condition that staff report on the financial impact of the program before deciding whether to start the program up again.

"I told you so," Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates said, reminding board members that she didn't want the program to go for more than one year without studying whether it would actually save the county money.

When the board approved the program last August, the intent was to save money by encouraging long-term employees with higher salaries and benefits to take an early retirement and replacing them with entry-level workers.

As an incentive the county offered to buy up to three years of credit in the Public Employee Retirement System, thus increasing the size of the employees' annual retirement benefits.

To ensure that the plan would actually save money, department heads were supposed to provide a cost-benefits analysis with each requested early retirement buyout.

So far, the county has paid out $3.2 million in sick and vacation leave alone, without yet realizing a cost savings.

"It was a cost-efficient measure ... that proved quite costly," Finance Director Rosemary Vassiliadis said. "Hopefully the county will be saving money in the long run."

Approximately 1,000 workers were eligible, but around 130 people actually took the buy-out, including Business License Director Ned Solomon, County Counsel Mahlon Edwards, and Aviation Director Bob Broadbent.

Assistant County Manager Randy Walker told the board last August that a similar program in 1993 saved the county a net $3.1 million, after spending $3.8 million in buyout costs.

Personnel Director Cheryl Miller said she would send letters to people who are still eligible for the program. Anyone who is scheduled to leave before the fiscal year ending June 30 still qualifies, Walker said.