 |
 |
Jim Wanderscheid
By CATHY BUSSEWITZ
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The board of the Marin-Sonoma mosquito control agency voted to hold off on approving the final contract of the agency’s retiring manager until it can be sure that one-time payouts will not be used to spike his pension.
The board also voted to reduce the amount paid for General Manager Jim Wanderscheid’s unused sick time from 100 percent to 50 percent.
The decision about the final compensation package was made Wednesday night at a meeting of the Marin-Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District board in Cotati.
Under the proposed contract, which was debated for nearly two hours, Wanderscheid would have been paid about $67,000 for 100 percent of his unused sick days when he retired after more than 30 years with the agency.
That cost concerned some board members.
“I work with cities all over the state, and those cities that I work with are going in the opposite direction,” said Frank Egger, who represents Fairfax on the board and who has served as a council member for more than four decades. “They’re struggling to pay their retirement costs, and here it’s like money is no object.”
Currently, employees of the district are entitled to a payout of 50 percent of their unused sick hours up to 1,000 hours. Wanderscheid had accrued 900 hours of unused sick time, and was asking for a 100 percent payout because of a prior employment contract when he was hired.
“I’m asking for a one-time payout for something I asked for when I was hired in 1978,” Wanderscheid said. “We’ve taken on challenges in this district that this staff should be darned proud of.”
The payout was questioned by board members not only because of the current climate of cutbacks in municipal budgets, but also because the contract for employees of the district changed in the late 1980s to reduce that benefit. Wanderscheid said he had searched the minutes of previous board meetings, but did not find any evidence that the board approved that change to his benefits.
Board members said the disagreement had nothing to do with Wanderscheid’s performance, and they commended him for a career of exemplary service.
“I find it really hard under the current economic climate, even though this is a solvent jurisdiction here and we don’t have a big deficit, nevertheless we are funded by taxpayers,” said Guy Wilson, mayor of Sebastopol, who also sits on the board. “It does send a very questionable message to the public if we grant what amounts to a one-third pay increase to a public employee. It’s bad timing.”
Also under the proposed contract, Wanderscheid agreed to accept a payout in lieu of a benefit that the district would pay health benefits for the retiree’s spouse for the rest of his or her life. Wanderscheid, unmarried, accepted $13,704 instead of the benefit.
Board members agreed to retain that part of the contract.
Board president Tom Bradner said that if Wanderscheid did marry and his future wife took the benefit, it would cost the district an estimated $68,000 if she lived for 10 years, or about $137,000 if she lived for 20.
“What I want to know is, why he’s giving it up?” said Sandy Ross, who represents Mill Valley on the board. “It’s a good catch to get a wife with something like that.”
Overall, the proposed contract was defeated on a 5-12 vote. Instead, members agreed to reduce the sick leave payout and request a letter from the retirement board confirming that the one-time payouts would not spike Wanderscheid’s retirement package.
By comparison, state employees also accumulate unused sick time, but they cannot redeem the unused time for cash, according to Lynelle Jolley, spokesperson for the Department of Personnel Administration, in an interview before the meeting. Instead, they can convert their unused sick time into “service credits,” which are used to calculate the size of their pensions.
In the private sector, getting paid for unused sick time at retirement happens rarely, if ever.
“It almost always disappears,” said Santa Rosa attorney Greg Walsh, head of the labor and employment group at Dickenson Peatman & Fogarty, in an interview. “Many employers put in their handbooks that sick leave is not paid out at termination.”
Walsh also said he hasn’t come across private companies that pay lifetime health benefits for spouses after retirement.
Subscribe by Email
Follow us on Twitter
This guy really needs to hire a lawyer. His future is at stake. Grandstanding politicians and manufactured news can be pesky, but when they discover you’re not going to roll over, you’ll get what you contracted for and they’ll get (or avoid) a huge bill from their own lawyers.
They’re talking about revoking or changing the rules of retirement that existed for this public servant.
Believe me, those rules are well-established and pondered in complete detail by anyone contemplating a public service retirement.
To change them at the last minute is a broken promise, and reprehensible political pandering.
According to the TV, we could all escape our tax and credit card debt? Guess this concept has now spread to politicians.
Are they paying a consultant to tell them this, or is it a local idea?
May the mosquitoes take you!
Can you say scapegoat?