Jun 29, 2009 7:06 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Fired, Retired, But Still Working
Sweet Deal For Terminated Bureaucrat Gets Even Sweeter
Dismissed Director Still Gets Salary Plus Pension Payments
Shirley Richardson Used To Head The CIP
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The vote was unanimous last January when Miami's Civilian Investigative Panel fired its executive director, Shirley Richardson, alleging that she was, among other things, incompetent.
But more than five months after her dismissal Richardson is not only still on the city's payroll, she is receiving more compensation than ever before. It's thanks to a generous city manager, and a generous retirement policy that allows some employees to "retire" but keep working, receiving salary and pension payments.
When Richardson was sacked by the CIP, City Manager Pete Hernandez took her in as an assistant to an assistant in his office, but continued to pay her the full salary and perks she was paid as executive director of the CIP: $168,000 year salary, $800 a month car allowance, and $200 a month cell phone allowance. Hernandez called the largess a type of "severance" and added that it "took us longer than anticipated" to find her a new position at a lower salary.
While Richardson was given a new job title and a reduced salary earlier this month, the
CBS4 I-Team has learned she is enjoying a net gain in compensation, because she opted to participate in a deferred retirement, or "drop" program, that permits her to continue to draw a salary and, at the same time, receive monthly payments into a pension account she will receive in a lump sum when she stops working.
Under the combined salary plus pension package, the former CIP executive director is being compensated at an annual rate of nearly $218,000. That amount includes a salary of $100,000 and pension payments of $9,394 a month, or nearly $118,000 a year.
Richardson's new job is coordinator of a yet to be formally established "department of strategic management."
Some city commissioners are slack jawed.
"I hope that the city manager would see that this is so far afield from anything the taxpayers could possibly fathom," Commissioner Marc Sarnoff told the
CBS4 I-Team Monday. "This employee was fired for not being competent, and she's now the head of something called 'strategic planning?'"
"She couldn't plan her own department before," Sarnoff said, "and now she's going to plan for the entire city of Miami?"
Commissioner Tomas Regalado said, "This is not about her (Richardson). This is about the administration not having a grip on the city's finances. This is a total mess," Regalado said. "The worse thing is we're in a budget process where we are being told that we have a huge deficit that we need to fill."
Commission chairman Joe Sanchez said personnel matters are the purview of the city manager, but "I don't agree with the manager's decision on this one."
Hernandez has defended his treatment of Richardson, calling it "fair." He also says the new department of strategic planning won't cost the city any additional money because it is being staffed with existing employees.
There is nothing illegal about the pay-plus-pension plan Richardson is enjoying. More than a hundred employees are currently in the program.
"But this particular employee was fired for incompetence," said commissioner Sarnoff. "Fired, retired and still on the payroll?"
Richardson did not return
CBS4's calls seeking comment.
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