By Mark Reiter
The Blade
TOLEDO, Ohio — After nearly three decades of working as a deputy, Lynette Russell-Dunbar retired on Feb. 28 from the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office.
But it was a short-lived and somewhat ceremonial retirement.
The next day, she was rehired by Sheriff John Tharp, returning to her job as payroll manager in his administration. Her annual pay remained the same at $65,000.
She also gets an annual pension based on her 29 years of service with the sheriff’s office.
Ms. Russell-Dunbar, 52, is among dozens of local government employees who have retired briefly from their jobs only to return to the same positions or another one within the same office or department — a practice known as double-dipping.
The most recent double-dipper to make headlines is Dean Sparks, the executive director of Lucas County Children Services, who on March 30 retired and was rehired by the agency the next day to begin a new 18-month contract in his same job.
County officials criticized the move, saying publicity over his double-dipping and his retirement payout by the Children Services board would endanger a Nov. 4 levy request the agency says is needed to pay for the care of the hundreds of children it helps each year.
The Children Services board agreed to pay Mr. Sparks $123,718 annually, about $10,000 less than before he began collecting his pension, which Mr. Sparks estimated is about $70,000 a year.
With his retirement he also collected a check for $77,026 from the agency, most of that — $44,590 — for the nearly 17 weeks of vacation he said he didn’t have time to take.
The agency, which is charged with caring for the county’s neglected and abused children, is asking the voters to approve a 1.75-mill property tax on Nov. 4.
Without approval of the tax request — a 1.4-mill levy that won’t expire for two years and a new 0.35-mill tax — the agency says it will be forced next year to make $1.8 million in cuts to keep and stay out of debt.
A loophole in Ohio pension law allows employees such as Mr. Sparks and Ms. Russell-Dunbar to collect a pension check from a state public pension fund while at the same time collecting a paycheck from their public employer.
The maneuver is legal, but it has drawn criticism from some lawmakers and watchdog groups because of the impact it could have on pension reserves.
With their “retirements,” many public employees receive checks totaling tens of thousands of dollars in unused sick time and unused vacation stockpiled while working for the county, city, or state.
Sheriff’s office
Sheriff Tharp, a Democrat who took office in 2013, tops the annual salary chart for double-dippers in his office at $124,100. He also collects a pension.
Prior to his election, he was being paid $75,547 annually as commander in the sheriff’s administrative services division, a job he took in 1997 after he retired from the Toledo Police Department.
The top brass in Sheriff Tharp’s administration are also among the county’s double-dippers.
William Talbott retired from the department in 2011, and, after a two-year stint as Swanton police chief, he began duties as Sheriff Tharp’s chief deputy in July. He is paid $76,793 annually, about $10,000 more than what he was paid before he retired.
Upon his retirement, he was given a severance payout of nearly $69,000, including $50,851 in unused sick time.
Sheriff Tharp said he doesn’t have any qualms about surrounding himself with retired deputies despite the negative perception that double-dipping may have in the eyes of the public.
“I needed to keep her and to keep the operation running smoothly. I couldn’t let her go and lose all that experience,” Mr. Tharp said about retaining Ms. Russell-Dunbar.
Mr. Talbott began his career in the county in 1984 and held various positions in the office before he was promoted to sergeant in 2005 and went on to direct court services and field operations.
“I am looking for the best possible people for making decisions of the community,” he said. “In my own personal opinion, in the few jobs I have filled with people who have retired, were to fill positions that are very sensitive and need a lot of experience.”
Others double-dipping administrators in Sheriff Tharp’s office include Bruce Birr, who is paid $57,000 annually as director of community affairs, and Robert Sarahman, an internal affairs investigator who is paid $56,400 an year.
Donald Atkinson, a captain who runs the sheriff’s internal affairs unit, has been drawing a $67,000 annual salary and his pension since 2006.
Nothing new
The double-dipping perk, which is not available in private employment, is nothing new to Toledo or the state.
The practice began years ago with legislation that was designed to encourage retired pubic teachers to return to their jobs. Eventually, the practice was extended to city, county, and state workers.
It was expanded in 1991 to allow judges and other elected officials to draw both a salary and pension. The law requires elected officials to notify their local elections board 90 days before an election indicating their intention to draw a pension and continue to work.
Lucas County Probate Judge Jack Puffenberger created a storm of controversy in 2002 when he announced in August of that year that he planned to retire for two months after the election so he could draw his pension.
Judge Puffenberger, then 50, made the announcement after the filing deadline to run for re-election and had no opponent in the upcoming November election. However, lawyer Tim Kuhlman stepped up to oppose the incumbent judge as a write-in candidate.
Mr. Kuhlman, who now is a judge, made double-dipping an issue in his unsuccessful campaign to oust the two-term Democrat.
That same year, Lucas County Commissioner Sandy Isenberg, a Democrat, made the decision that she would draw her pension and continue to hold office if re-elected. She changed her mind about double-dipping after it caused a public outcry.
Ms. Isenberg subsequently was ousted in the election by Republican Maggie Thurber, who was the last person from her party to hold a seat on the board of commissioners.
Among the dozens of elected officials statewide receiving tax-paid salaries while drawing their pensions are Judges James Jensen and Stephen Yarbrough of the 6th District Court of Appeals and Lucas County Common Pleas Judges James Bates and Dean Mandros.
Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates said the handful of assistant prosecutors in her office who retired and came back did so at a cost savings for taxpayers during a time that her office was looking at layoffs.
Three of the five assistant prosecutors who draw pensions in the prosecutor’s office are part-time and paid about one-third of the salaries they made prior to retirement.
“I got them back at salaries that were a lot cheaper. They returned to my office with significantly less pay,” Mrs. Bates said. “They also didn’t come back to their same jobs. They came back and to do new jobs.”
Reform efforts
Legislation to reform double-dipping has been kicked around in the General Assembly from time to time, but eventually the proposals died without a vote by lawmakers, many who are drawing government pensions themselves.
State Rep. Rex Damschroder (R., Fremont) introduced a bill in 2012 that would have prevented all public workers from drawing their earned retirement funds while still working.
“I don’t think the retirement system was ever intended to allow workers to quit, get their retirement, and then go back to work at the same job,” Mr. Damschroder said. “You can’t do this in the private sector.”
Mr. Damschroder introduced House Bill 388 to end the practice, but it received scant attention and died without getting a single vote. He didn’t reintroduce it this session.
“I wasn’t going to reintroduce it until we get a new [House] leader,” Mr. Damschroder said. “It just happens that [House Speaker] Bill Batchelder falls into that [double-dipper] category. It’s no fault of his own. It’s just how it is.”
Mr. Batchelder is term-limited as of the end of this year, but there will be no next General Assembly for Mr. Damschroder to reintroduce the bill. A paperwork error in his candidate petitions cost him his spot on this year’s ballot, and he will leave the chamber with Mr. Batchelder.
Mr. Batchelder, a former judge, draws a pension from the Public Employee Retirement System in addition to his roughly $95,000-a-year legislative and leadership salary.
“I don’t fault anybody for following the law,” Mr. Damschroder said. “It’s the legislature that has to take full blame for not correcting the problem.”
Mr. Damschroder said he knows of no one who plans to pick up the anti-double-dipping torch when he leaves.
The Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio, the largest of the five state pensions funds in the state, won’t say how many of its 193,500 retirees have returned to government jobs in Ohio.
Taxpayer impact
The double-dipping maneuvers available to public employees have drawn sharp criticism from the Buckeye Institute.
Greg Lawson, a policy analyst for the Columbus-based think tank, said taxpayers are getting hit twice because they pay the contributions into pensions and the salaries of government workers who double-dip.
“From our standpoint it is very simple. You work and you get your pensions,” he said.
“Pensions are intended for retirement. There is a lack of fairness in double-dipping. There is an additional cost to taxpayers the more you do this.”