County mulls early retirement proposal

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June 19, 2010

By DENISE A. RAYMO Staff Writer The Press Republican Sat Jun 19, 2010, 03:28 AM EDT

MALONE — Long-time Franklin County employees will be polled to measure their interest in early retirement, if legislators decide to offer it.

Gov. David Paterson recently announced options for early retirement incentives for counties, school districts and municipalities.

The options apply to people 50 and up with at least 10 years of eligible service or those 55 with 25 years of service, instead of the traditional 30 years.

The government entities could either choose Option A, Option B, both A and B or each could opt out and not offer early incentives to employees at all.

Option A, as described to legislators Thursday by County Manager James Feeley, requires the governing body to set up a savings account to accept 50 percent of each eligible person's salary for the past two years.

The entity would have two years to accumulate the money for the account, he said.

He said the only way it might work is "we use it surgically" and target a certain person and ask about their interest in it.

Feeley said 221 people are potentially eligible for early retirement under Option A and that the decisions have to be made before Aug. 31.

Option B has the potential to impact 13 people, he said, and that decision must come before Dec. 31.

These people would be eligible to retire without penalty, but it could cost the county more than $200,000 in additional payments into the system to cover the obligation.

"That is not math that works in our favor," Feeley said.

But looking at it "surgically," he said, the county could see who is interested in retiring, and once they go, not fill the position that's vacated.

Legislators made no decision on what to do, but the 13 people who potentially qualify for Option B will be asked about their interests.

Feeley said those people work in the County Jail, Probation Office, Real Property Tax Service Office, Career Development, the Nursing Home, Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Social Services and the Highway Department.