When Jack Myers retired as Bensalem School District business manager in June, he could count on a government pension that he had built for nearly 40 years.
But his pension picture isn't so clear now.
The same goes for eight other current or former Bensalem school employees who were among 20 people recently charged in $1.5 million dual corruption probes involving the theft of district-owned auto supplies and ghost employees.
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| Jack Myers |
They potentially could lose at least part of their state pensions, according to state officials. But the same law that docks pensions also gives public school employees a way around losing their own contributions and the interest they've accumulated on their money.
A school employee can withdraw the lump sum of his or her contributions and the interest on the pension account either before pleading guilty or a conviction, said Evelyn Tatkovski, press secretary for the state's Public School Employees' Retirement System.
Public school employees charged with a crime also can collect full retirement benefits if they meet eligibility up until a guilty plea or a sentencing if convicted, Tatkovski said. Upon conviction, the individual loses the publicly funded portion of the benefit and the interest on that money.
The 1978 law strips most Pennsylvania public employees and officials of their publicly funded pensions if they are convicted or plead guilty/no defense to crimes connected to their jobs. The list of crimes covered under the law includes theft, forgery, tampering with records, perjury, retaliation against a witness, official oppression, misapplication of entrusted property and sex crimes.
Convicted public employees can receive contributions they paid into the pension fund, but without interest, if they hadn't already taken the money in a lump sum. Bensalem school employees contribute toward their pensions, a spokeswoman confirmed.
An employee also could be forced to give up individual pension contributions, too, under the law if the court decided the money must be used to pay court costs, fines and restitution associated with a conviction.
The Bensalem employees charged in the corruption probes include four district school bus garage mechanics — one the chief mechanic and another the shop foreman — as well as three ground-keeping employees plus Myers and facilities manager Robert Moseley.
Before Myers was hired in Bensalem in 2000, he worked for the Philadelphia School District for 26 years. If he is convicted of misapplication of entrusted property, he could lose all that time and taxpayer-funded portion of his pension.
Others charged in the corruption probe have had similar long school district careers.
Former mechanic Roland “Tex” Angle who worked for Bensalem for 26 years before retiring in 2006, and chief mechanic and shop foreman Frederick Lange, who police say was the garage theft mastermind, worked in the district for 41 years.
They would not be the first Bucks County public officials or employees to lose part of their pensions because of a criminal conviction.
Last year, former longtime county register of wills Barbara Reilly, 76, her second deputy Rebecca Kiefer, 64, and Candace Quinn, 53, of Bristol were stripped of the publicly-funded portion of their pensions and interest.
Bucks County employees are required to contribute at least 9 percent of their salary annually to the retirement plan. The county guarantees a certain interest rate per year, typically about 4 percent.
The women were among four people who pleaded guilty in a scheme that forced office workers to work the polls for Republican candidates on Election Day and gave them off-the-books compensatory time.
At her sentencing, Keifer said that the pension match cost her $300,000.
The county's retirement board has taken no action on the pension of the fourth person convicted in the register of wills case — first deputy Jim McCullen, 76, who was employed by the county from 1998 to 2010. Neither has the board taken pension action involving former deputy sheriff Gary Browndorf, 55, who was convicted last year of simple assault and perjury, said county spokesman Christopher Edwards, who didn't say why no action has been taken.
Between 2008 and last year, 37 Public School Employees’ Retirement System members had their pensions forfeited, including three from Bucks and Montgomery county school districts, Tatkovski said.
During that same time period, 45 Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System members lost pensions under Act 140, spokeswoman Pam Hile said. They included state employees, state police, judges, some lawmakers and members of the State System of Higher Education.
State judiciary members also face additional forfeiture provisions, including if the member is suspended, removed or barred from holding judicial office for a conviction or a felony or misconduct in office or conduct that prejudices the proper administration of justice or brings the judicial office into disrepute, Hile said.
The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System and the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System could not provide statistics on the average amount of pension forfeitures.
Between 2008 and last year, eight Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System members forfeited their pensions because of criminal convictions. The PMRS was unable to provide information about whether any of the eight who’ve lost their pensions were from Bucks or Montgomery counties.
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