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Retire one day, back drawing from the public checkbook the next.
OK, on contract at $125 an hour. The net result is pretty much the same. Bob Brown, formerly vice president for administrative services at Central New Mexico Community College, retired on Oct. 31 with a $65,000 annual pension. The next day, CNM hired him back on a short-term $20,000 contract to do some of the same work he had been doing while officials looked for a consultant. When that contract expired in January, Brown and CNM, after a request for proposals in which Brown was the low bidder, inked a second contract that will pay Brown $125 an hour up to $70,000 annually. Oh, by the way, CNM actually paid him an additional $8,800 to retire under a buyout program. Brown retired under the rule of 75, which means that a worker can retire when his age and years of service equal 75. So much for trying to scale back on double dipping. As vice president, Brown was paid $143,000 to negotiate directly with the employees’ union, head up human resources and handle labor relations, administrative planning and other duties. Under his current contract, Brown helps negotiate with the union although he says he only acts as an adviser. However, union members contend that from their perspective his work now is essentially the same as before. The Educational Retirement Board initially rejected Brown’s contract request because it believed his new duties would be too similar to his old ones and because ERB retirees who want to draw pensions plus work as independent contractors must wait 90 days under an IRS requirement if they are going to do the same job as when they were on the state payroll. That rule is just a ridiculous loophole that doesn’t prohibit double dipping via contract — it just delays it. And it is completely vulnerable to abuse and insider preference between the departing employee and his or her old bosses. Lastly, it makes zero sense for a pension fund with an unfunded liability of about $5.7 billion to encourage people like Brown to leave early and start drawing benefits, but that’s exactly what this policy does. State lawmakers should slam that window shut so a retirement is really a retirement, not just a slick way to double dip. After CNM spent $4,000 on an attorney to address some ambiguities in Brown’s request, the agency approved Brown’s deal, saying his role as a labor consultant was different than his duties as vice president. Meanwhile, the public tab for Bob Brown since his retirement? Try $167,800 when you tally up his pension and contract cash. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
