Retirement Compensation

I received a somewhat cynical, sardonic, and accusatory email late yesterday evening on everybody's favorite topic: the County's 401(a) program.  Here, below, is the email I received from this person with whom I am acquainted.  My response to his email follows below.....

"Jeff,

            The actions of you and the rest of the BOCC over the previous 12 months take me back to the W.D. Childers days. It’s unfortunate that our elected officials tend to lose sight of what their duties and responsibilities are as it relates to supporting their constituents and overall needs of the County. Of course the latest debacle is over Commissioners retirement compensation as it relates to the County’s contribution and subsequent payout. It’s apparent that the Board feels their duties and responsibilities are more important and hazardous than our Public Safety employees. It’s evident the retirement language as it relates to the Board and upper management is not crystal clear and without ambiguity. Knowing this, why doesn’t the Board simply accept a rate that is more reasonable and commensurate with the part-time job they currently hold?  Doing the right thing these days has become the exception rather than the norm – morals and ethics have become words of the past.

            I would hope the BOCC will regain their senses and remember who they actually serve and support. If the Board feels they are entitled to this rate of retirement, then the military retirees have been severely under compensated.

            The typical County employee receives a retirement contribution rate of less than 13%, while the Board feels their rate should be greater than 50%. Although I am not confident, I am hopeful the voters remember this compensation grab especially if additional County funds are expended via a law suit to assist the Board in obtaining this ridiculous compensation package.

XXXX"

My response---below:

XXXX,

Thanks for the frank and candid opinion you’ve provided below.  Thanks also for your military service, which I respect and appreciate strongly—as I grew up in a military family with a dad that did 33 years in the Navy, a brother who is a retired Marine, and two of my children who have now served or are serving in the US Military.  Knowing what I know about military retirements—I do believe they are deserved and very generous.  However—the public sector and the state and some local Florida governments offer some programs such as a deferred retirement (DROP) plan as well as pensions for many employees and classes of employees that are legal, appropriate, and MUCH more generous than a military pension.

This all said--  I must strongly disagree with some of the assumptions you have mentioned in your below email which no doubt have been generated via media coverage of this debacle that has been one-sided, incomplete, and downright dishonest. 

So before you flippantly relegate me and my professional reputation to the rubbish heap—I certainly hope you will hear me out, below, on what the realities are surrounding the 401(a) plan. 

First off—a couple of points of note worth consideration.  

Number 1—WD Childers was a dishonest, criminal politician who was eventually indicted, tried, and convicted for his criminal behavior.  He spent time in jail. Years.  Deservedly.

Conversely-I have spent 15 years in local elected office, living under a microscope, and have not ever once even been accused of doing anything unethical, immoral, or-----illegal.  It’s because I follow rules, do my job, and am a “Boy Scout” that plays it straight.

Number 2 is I have never taken one dime from the taxpayers, not one red cent, that was not afforded to me as a salary, benefit, or emolument of my position enumerated in the constitution of Florida and/or local ordinance.

Number 3 is this: I do not take the 401(a) plan.  I am in the standard Florida Retirement System (FRS) pension plan, just like teachers, deputy sheriffs, firemen, and other county employees---which is a formulaic program that calculates an employee’s salary average and length of service to determine a monthly stipend for the elected official-- when such an official reaches retirement age.  For me, that will be when I turn 62.

(It is worth mentioning here that if the board decided to voluntarily reduce the return rate on this 401(a) plan by even as little as 1% for the three members who take it Bender, Barry, and May-----it would save taxpayers’ dollars when juxtaposed with the costs of other elected officials like me who are stuck in FRS with their overhead which is obscene!)

Number 4 is this:  The 401(a) plan at issue----complete with these concomitant payments with higher levels of interest rate returns for some senior managers and those elected officials that have chosen this plan----has been established in the County since 1997 and paid in full by our current clerk and the former clerk, Ernie Lee Magaha. These plans are ubiquitous around the state—in counties, cities and other municipalities.  This is not something Escambia just cooked-up one day out of the clear blue sky for self-enrichment—regardless of what the liberal PNJ and their cartoonist espouse.

Sadly—the current clerk’s recent and unilateral decision to withhold funding and constructively void this BCC contract appears to be a political one, and one that does not stand up to the scrutiny of legal

analysis.  Multiple lawyers have weighed-in now to reassure the clerk, with legal citations and precedents, that the plan is legal and meets muster under Florida law.  Again, I don’t take the 401(a) plan but I will not sit passively as the clerk acts ultra vires and unlawfully, unilaterally voids a board contract.  I will guard the rights and responsibilities of any office I hold zealously—as I should.  What has happened has been a sad spectacle—instigated and initiated by the clerk and it is an issue she could fix tomorrow.

Regardless, the clerk has now quadrupled-down and voided a contract (which she does not legally have the power to do) by withholding these payments.  She has received some positive press from low information media types and others that do not have a complete understanding of this issue—and she is now, therefore,  pandering to them so far as I can tell. 

So, at a recent meeting, as a way of getting this discussion out of the political gutter and back to a rational mature resolution on the dais—I suggested that the clerk and the board request a joint advisory opinion from the Florida Attorney General—so that the seminal question can be answered:  “Is the plan legal?”  The clerk angrily rejected this commonsense overture intended to turn the temperature down.

I believe that she’s stuck in a no win position because now she is saying something is “illegal” that she had been previously saying was “legal” via her offices’ paying on it in timely fashion for nearly a decade.  But now that the returns have become greater, she is incorrectly labeling this plan as “illegal” in order to curry favor with and pander to some unintelligent local press types.  And in the process of doing this she’s placed herself in a two sided “bear trap.”

The critical issue to consider XXXX is that the cost of the program that I am in is no different that the cost to the taxpayers for the program that three of my counterparts participate in, the 401(a).  They realize a higher rate of return but the taxpayers pay no more for their plan than they pay for my plan or for any elected official in Escambia County that is in the FRS investment or pension option plan.  Three of my counterparts have simply chosen a different option, with a provider that has much lower overhead and therefore passes more of a return on investment into these individuals’ accounts.  But the net cost to the taxpayer is no different. 

Now, like you, I do agree that the returns on this 401(a) are extraordinarily generous and the optics are bad.  I’ve stated this in meetings and in the press.  I do believe the board will fix this problem, and lower the rate voluntarily to save taxpayer dollars.  But it is our problem to fix---not the grandstanding clerk who pines for the former Administrator whom the board recently fired.  And to your comment about public safety employees—I’ll simply point out to you that this same board recently provided a historic $10,000 pay increase to starting firemen, a giant raise to ECSO deputies, and very significant bonus payments and pay increases for corrections guards and EMTs and paramedics.  We do value all employees—and in particular our first responders.

Within the body of this email are some hyperlinks that will shed some additional light on this matter for you if you choose to look.

Again, I thank you for your candor and I hope you will read all the relevant documents I have linked and take a broader view than simply relegating those of us who serve as being unethical and/or immoral.

Because that opinion simply does not match up to the facts of the matter.  I’m willing to discuss this to an  even more granular, atomized degree than I’ve presented above if you’d like.  My personal cell phone that I answer is 850-293-1459. 

Respectfully,

 

Jeff Bergosh

Vice-Chairman and District 1 Commissioner,

Escambia Board of County Commissioners

221 Palafox Place Suite 400

Pensacola, FL 32502

850-595-4910 office

850-377-2209 Voicemail

District1@myescambia.com

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