Newsday.com

School official retires one day, is rehired the next

8:17 PM EDT, May 10, 2008

This story was reported by John Hildebrand, Eden Laikin and Sandra Peddie, and written by Hildebrand and Peddie.

After retiring as an assistant school superintendent in Commack on Jan. 1 of this year, Ronald Grotsky could look forward to a generous public pension as a reward for his nearly 40 years of service -- $100,682 a year.

His retirement was remarkably short-lived.

On Jan. 2, Grotsky returned to the same job in the same district at the same salary he was making the day before, $174,900 annually. Coupled with his pension, Grotsky was now earning $275,582, paid by state and local taxpayers. The only difference was essentially a clerical one -- the district now classified him under the title "interim" assistant superintendent. He said the district did not interview any other candidates for the job before approving his interim status.

"I believe the district salary and benefits it affords me for the work is fair considering the actual work that I am doing," he said in an e-mail to a reporter.

On Thursday night at a Commack school board meeting, Grotsky announced his resignation from the district, effective June 30. He declined to answer questions from a reporter at the meeting.

A continuing Newsday examination of pension practices in school and special districts shows that at least 40 top-level school administrators on Long Island -- or one in nine -- are collecting two checks from the taxpayers, as retirees and interims. Most are working in different school districts than the ones from which they retired. Collectively, the 40 are getting paid approximately $11 million annually in salaries and pensions.

This practice, referred to by some as "double dipping," is the subject of a bill pending in the State Legislature in Albany that would require retirees to choose between a pension or a salary, if the pension is more than $83,389 and the salary exceeds $30,000. Records show that change would affect all but seven of the 40 administrators.

"I don't think there was ever any intention for the system to work this way," said Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), a critic of the practice who introduced the bill. State Sen. Owen Johnson (R- West Babylon) is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.

Sweeney said he targeted higher pensions because, "That's where the gaming of the system occurs."

Not alone in double dipping

Grotsky's employment arrangement is not unique. Records reviewed by Newsday show that at least two other administrators retired, began collecting pensions and returned to their former jobs within days. Joan Colvin, Jericho's assistant superintendent for business, retired July 1, 2007, with a $192,400 pension, returning to the same job the next day and earning a $208,004 salary. Edward Sallie, Port Washington's assistant superintendent for human resources, retired Jan. 5 with a pension of $105,920. He returned to the same job Jan. 16, making a per diem of $769 a day. He left the post May 1.

Both Colvin's and Sallie's districts are saving money with their hirings because they don't have to pay benefits for them, officials said.

School administrators who support the practice of rehiring retirees say it brings critically needed experience to key jobs. Critics say the practice is done at the taxpayer's expense and makes a mockery of high pensions and school district salaries. Newsday's examination shows that at least some of the interims are not temporary and end up their posts for years.

Asked why Commack felt the need to bring back Grotsky back to the very same job after his retirement, Superintendent James Feltman said the school board "realized it was very difficult to get a replacement in the middle of the year" and did not interview any candidates for the post.

In order to collect a pension and a paycheck of more than $30,000, retired administrators under the age of 65 need approval from the state Department of Education before beginning an interim job. Newsday's examination shows that the department has typically granted these approvals -- called waivers -- with minimal oversight.

Criticism has increased

Complaints from civic activists and others concerned about high school taxes have mounted since 2002. That was the year the state lowered from 70 to 65 the age when retired government employees could resume work without limits on their earnings. Records show that the number of interim superintendents has risen since that change in the law. Sweeney's proposed bill would also push the age restriction back to 70.

One argument by legislators favoring the change was that it would help older retired teachers whose pensions had not kept pace with inflation seek second jobs. But state pensions and school salaries have risen sharply in recent years. Today, Long Island school superintendents are among the highest paid in the nation.

On Monday, Newsday reported that James Hunderfund, who retired as Commack's superintendent, collects the largest public pension in New York -- $316,245. Now working as the superintendent of the Malverne school district, he also earns approximately $200,000 annually on top of that. In an interview, Hunderfund said he earns the money he is paid.

Critics say some interim positions come to retirees through friendships and school connections. In 2005, the North Babylon school board hired a private consultant, retired Connetquot superintendent Joseph Laria, to help in its search for a new superintendent. Randy Bos, one of the candidates Laria found, was hired by the school board, but left within a year. The school board then gave the interim superintendency to Laria, at a $210,000 salary on top of his $105,396 pension.

Laria left North Babylon in January, after the district found a permanent replacement. Last month, he was appointed as interim superintendent in Hempstead at a salary of $265,000

Returned as troubleshooter

Some educators say retired administrators should be encouraged to come back when needed -- for example, to help financially troubled districts straighten out their books.

William Brosnan, a longtime and former Northport superintendent and former president of the state superintendents' council, is one such troubleshooter. At the request of state officials, Brosnan ran the troubled Roosevelt school system for five months last year, after a previous superintendent was ousted. Currently the executive director of the Long Island Regional School Support Center in Holbrook, he is paid $800 a day. His annual pension is $194,403, according to state records. Though under age 65, he is allowed to keep both the per diem and pension through a state waiver.

Brosnan said he's earned the money, and questions whether schools will be able to find enough administrators without bringing in retirees. Brosnan cited surveys he said show there are fewer candidates to replace retiring central office administrators. Others say there are often dozens of applications for each vacancy, which require advanced degrees and years of experience.

"People are very quick to blame the superintendent for the first thing that goes wrong," Brosnan said. "A lot of people are hesitant to put themselves and their families through that kind of experience."

Although the practice of hiring interims is designed to be temporary, some wind up as permanent or semi-permanent. Hunderfund was made permanent at Malverne after several months on the job, records show. Last Thursday, the Roslyn school board reappointed Joseph Dragone as interim business superintendent for a third year and Thomas Mohrman as the interim assistant operations superintendent for a fifth year.

Says district saved money

Colvin, of Jericho, said the district was saving thousands of dollars by hiring her. And Sallie's boss, Port Washington Superintendent Geoffrey Gordon, said the move had saved Port Washington about $40,000 in salary and pension contributions. After Newsday's call, the district dropped Sallie from the payroll altogether, saying he had reached the state's earnings limit for pensioners working without a waiver.

In an interview Saturday, Sallie, 58, denied that his January retirement was timed to game the system. He said that his annual work cycle in charge of personnel essentially ended with fall hirings and that he was simply wrapping work up subsequently. Sallie, a 36-year school veteran, added, "It was time for me to retire and I retired."

Sallie's temporary retention irritated some leaders of the Port Washington Education Assembly, a local civic group that monitors the district's finances and academic performance.

"We call this double dipping, and this goes on in all school districts -- it's not peculiar to Port Washington," said Joel Katz, the assembly's treasurer and a retired CPA. "The school district says it's not costing you anything, because Albany is paying his pension. But the point is, it's costing all the taxpayers money."

Newsday reporter Stacey Altherr contributed to this story.

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