Posted on 10/11/2010 11:03:42 AM PDT by DelaWhere
According to Ron Williams in The News Journal, when Chris Coons served as the President of the County Council, he diverted untold millions of taxpayer dollars as payoffs to his political buddies and top staff. Coons did this by exploiting a loophole in the county’s pension program.
The loophole was originally meant to attract new county police officers, but Coons decided to use it as a cash cow to pay off his political hacks.
(Excerpt) Read more at freedomist.com ...
Senator O’Donnell
She can use the info in an ad when they see fit.
It appears that the newspaper that published this information (The News Journal) is the largest in the State of Delaware, with a circulation base that indicates it reaches nearly four out of every ten households. If the article was positioned prominently in the print edition, it should attract some follow up coverage from local TV and radio commentators and journos.
Certainly provides some grist for O’Ds campaign-closing commercials.
Lets get this October Suprise on the headlines!!
Christine's team better get hopping---this item is a sure-thing election killer.
<><><><><> REFERENCES <><><><><>
THE MILLIONAIRE COP (firefighter, teacher, federal bureaucrat) Next Door
BY Rich Karlgaard, Forbes Magazine 6/28/10 issue
EDITED Who are America's fastest-growing class of millionaires? They are police officers, firefighters, teachers and federal bureaucrats, who, unless things change drastically, will be paid something near their full salaries every year--until death--after retiring in their mid-50s....a retirement sum worth millions.
Based on a realistic 4% return, an $80,000 annual pension payout with full health benefits implies a large pot of money--$2 million, to be precise.
That $2 million also happens to be the implied booty of your average California policeman who retires at age 55........in Carlsbad, CA the average firefighter or police officer typically retires at age 55 and has 28 years of service w/ an annual city pension of $76,440. SOURCE http://www.forbes.com/
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Retire-rehire practice is double-dipping
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/1/10 | Chip Johnson / FR Posted by SmithL
"Annuitants" - in public sector parlance - refers to retirees who are rehired to work their old jobs or similar positions, a practice that has become all too common in local and state government. For the retirees, it's just one more way to remain on the public payroll - while collecting pension benefits.
But some government leaders see this recycling of employees as a cost-effective measure in tough economic times: These experienced and skilled employees are available to pitch in during busy periods or fill-in temporarily while new or promoted workers are trained to replace them. "They don't receive benefits, and there's no pension cost to employers," said Pat O'Connell, the auditor-controller for Alameda County.
For most workers, for every dollar spent on salary, the county spends another 50 cents on health and other employee benefits, O'Connell explained. Annuitant employees are restricted by state law to no more than 960 hours - or 24 weeks - of employment for the year. They receive a payroll check, a pension check and - after being laid off until the next year - unemployment insurance payments. It means that in some cases annuitants earn more money than they ever did as full-time workers. Nice work if you can find it.
But there is something terribly wrong with giving pension-collecting retirees a second bite at the apple. Such policies run counter to claims of drastic cost-cutting measures in an effort to bring government spending within the limits of its means. (Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The debate is the day after tomorrow.
The election is in three weeks.
She's down between 11 and 15 points in the polls.
There ain't much time.
Former Bell police chief had a lucrative tax angle for retirement Chief Randy Adams had himself declared disabled even as he was hired for the job, a move that could make him millions in tax-free pension income when he retires, according to records and interviews. (Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times)
Former Bell Police Chief Randy Adams had himself declared disabled even as he was hired for the post, a move that could make him millions of dollars in tax-free pension income when he retires, according to records and interviews. An agreement that Adams struck with former Bell City Administrator Robert Rizzo, who was arrested on corruption charges Tuesday, says that the incoming chief suffered the lingering effects of back, knee and neck injuries sustained years earlier and that the municipality would support his planned application for a disability pension.
He filed for a less lucrative non-disability retirement as he prepared to leave his job as Glendale police chief. That application was approved, but he rescinded it the same month his service officially ended in Glendale and he went to work for Bell in July 2009, Glendale and state pension officials say. Pension experts and Adams' former employers questioned the legality of the Bell agreement, in part because it meant the city determined him unfit for the position's full-time duties and employed him anyway.
"He was not disabled," said Glendale City Manager Jim Starbird, who was Adams' boss until he left for Bell. "I never heard of someone going to work for a city and having that [disability] determination made going in. I don't know how you hire someone who is disabled and not fit for the job." Adams' attorney, Mark Pachowicz, said his 59-year-old client was disabled and the agreement was designed to ensure that he would not have to fight Bell for a medical pension.
"Mr. Adams wanted to make sure that the city was well aware of his physical capabilities," Pachowicz said. "He made all of that clear and upfront. He didn't want the city to come back and say we didn't know you had a bad back."
Disability pensions are designed for employees who must give up a job because of a work-related injury. Those who qualify do not have to pay taxes on 50% of their retirement benefits, which is intended to compensate them for lost earnings, said spokespersons for the California Public Employees' Retirement System. "You're only supposed to receive a disability retirement if you are disabled and unable to perform the normal duties of your job," said spokesman Ed Fong. "If that is not the case, it would be fraud."
Unlike Rizzo and seven other current and former Bell officials, Adams has not been charged by Los Angeles County prosecutors in this week's sweeping corruption case. Rizzo, Adams and Assistant City Administrator Angela Spaccia stepped down from their posts after The Times disclosed their high salaries in July.
Adams was paid $457,000 a year in Bell, more than double his salary in Glendale, whose police force is many times larger. The jump in pay normally would grant Adams retirement benefits calculated at $411,000, although CalPERS has said it will not approve payments to him, Rizzo and other former Bell officials until authorities have determined that no laws were broken.
With the disability pension, Adams would not have to pay state or federal taxes on an estimated $205,500 per year, according to CalPERS. In a civil lawsuit filed last week, the state attorney general accused Rizzo, Adams and others of being part of a broad scheme to loot Bell's treasury. The suit said Rizzo hired Adams despite believing he "was not able to fully perform" his duties.
It also took aim at the city's promise to support a disability retirement and to provide lifetime healthcare benefits to Adams and his dependents, with no vesting period. The suit did not specifically challenge his claimed disability, detail how much he stood to benefit from it or refer to his almost simultaneous filing for a non-disability pension.
The one-page pension agreement signed by Rizzo says that Adams had previous knee and back surgeries as well as a neck injury, and all were job-related. It says Adams has "limitations to full-time law enforcement duty and is disabled from heavy lifting" and "experiences flare-ups of debilitating back pain and numbness in his left foot," resulting from the back injury.
The document indicates that the back injury led Adams to file a workers' compensation claim against Glendale and his two prior employers, Simi Valley and Ventura, and that it was being "litigated" by the cities. Officials for the three cities said they settled the case.
Ventura City Manager Rick Cole said the amount paid to Adams was $45,000, most of it from Simi Valley. Pachowicz said Adams had back surgery in 2003 and returned to work in Glendale two weeks later. Starbird said Adams never told him that his back trouble left him unable to perform full-time duties. He said the workers' comp claim would not have qualified him for a disability pension.
In addition, recently released records show that Adams initially signed separate contracts that split his pay between two positions: police chief and "special police counsel" to Rizzo. The contracts are dated April 2009, but Pachowicz said they were dated incorrectly and were actually signed this year.
He said Rizzo told Adams he wanted to create the police counsel position in anticipation of having him head a regional law enforcement agency that Rizzo hoped to launch in southeast L.A. County.
Authorities have accused Rizzo of trying to hide his $787,000 salary by dividing it among several job titles. Pachowicz said that the two contracts Adams signed were not an attempt to conceal his full salary. According to the attorney general's lawsuit, Spaccia instructed Adams not to state in his contract how many pay periods were included in a year. "We have crafted our Agreements carefully so we do not draw attention to our pay," Spaccia wrote to Adams, the lawsuit says. "The word Pay Period is used and not defined in order to protect you from someone taking the time to add up your salary."
Spaccia has been described by city officials as a close friend of Adams who first worked with him in Ventura. Pachowicz said they were not that close but that Spaccia was the Bell official who recruited Adams for the job. Starbird said no one from Bell City Hall called him to inquire about Adams' disability claim or his suitability for the job.
As someone who hired Adams six years before and continued to think highly of him, Starbird said, he had counseled Adams not to work for Bell because of its history of corruption. "I said, 'Why Bell?' and he said the package was too good to refuse," Starbird recounted. "What's disappointing is that Randy didn't recognize this situation and that it was going to cast him and us in a bad light. There was a level of corruption in Bell that he capitalized on. He lost his values along the way."
Good luck on this actually making the NEWS!!!! Like Coons’ MARXISM...it’ll be a SECRET!!! SSSHHHHH!!
A quick and dirty ad with this info in it could be made in under 24 hours. I believe that they’re on top of it.
That may yet happen, but that would be a way to satisfy us -- most of "us" who are not even in Delaware.
Give her some credit here: she's playing a strictly local media exposure game here, and the biggest local media player has picked up this damning story for all of her potential Delaware constituents to read and other local media to digest.
A big win that hasn't seemed to cost her a dime, yet it's cost her opponent serious traction in terms of credibility among the electorate for whom it will matter ultimately.
There's simply way too many people from too many other states trying to tell a Delaware candidate who hits each Delaware county every day in person how they think she should do everything -- as though it's even theirs to do.
She's local all the way and it appears she's scoring some pretty important points.
FReegards!
This from the Wilmington News Journal?
A herd of pigs just flew over my house.
Creating a “buzz” for the story at Yahoobuzz is one way of pushing it out in the open. It has to be buzzed up by a couple of hundred people though.
There are already more than 50 comments here.Any takers?
COME ON COD......WAGE WAR!
Is this too complicated for people in DE to understand?
I believe that DE is a lost state forever more. I know James Madision criticized DE at the Constitutional Convention for being pro-Tory, but other say Madison was wrong.
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