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11/13/2009: "Council Votes Themselves In As Full-Time Employees For Retirement Purposes"

The County Council has unanimously voted to declare themselves to be full-time employees of San Juan County; both now, in the future and, in the past. It may come as a surprise to some that council members will receive retirement pay, but they do. The vote on Tuesday will now allow them to receive full retirement service credits, as opposed to the part-time they have been receiving.

The State authorized Citizen’s Salary Commission set the salary of the council after they received testimony from the individual council members, and after completing an in-depth study of the council duties and responsibilities. They set the council pay scale based on a finding the council would not be required to work more than 45% of what the previous County Commissioners had worked -in other words, they had a part-time job.

Councilmember Howard Rosenfeld recently raised the question of fairness, arguing some of the council members spend more than 20 hours a week dealing with the demands of the job.

After receiving a requested staff report from the SJC Auditor’s office, the council was ready to go forward and vote to take the steps necessary to obtain full-time retirement benefits, but were requested by staff to hold off on making a decision until SJC Human Resources could review the proposal for consistence with the law.

This triggered a review by the SJC Prosecutor’s office. County Prosecutor Randy Gaylord showed up at the next council meeting and said the council can simply state in the required reporting forms that they are working at least 90 hours a month, and send them to the Department of Retirement System. This will show them to be full-time, and will earn them full service credits toward their future retirement benefits.

Gaylord said the Council should make a motion to reflect the number of hours the council wishes to report, and if it should be retroactive to past years.

Rosenfeld made a motion the council works 90 hours or more per month; then he made a second motion to make it retroactive. Question called. Unanimous vote.

As a result of the votes, the council members will each submit a notarized affidavit each quarter stating they had worked at least 90 hours a month. Problem solved.