By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG — The city has capitulated in its four-year legal battle with former officers who sued to get back money they paid into the pension fund while on the police force.
In the coming weeks the city will pay back 351 former officers a total of $1.5 million — which doesn't include interest, the officers' legal fees or what the city itself spent in an ultimately futile fight.
The plaintiffs said the city's refusal to give back their money violated state pension law. Two courts agreed in what has become an expensive defeat for St. Petersburg.
It is a defeat that will soon be codified in law: The city has drafted a new ordinance that the City Council will vote on Nov. 4 that is supposed to finally align the pension plan with state law.
"It wasn't a frivolous lawsuit, we weren't trying to get blood out of a stone," said Edward Remia, a former St. Petersburg police officer and now a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy who stands to get more than $10,000 from the city.
"We did our homework, we read the statute. It was quite clear that we were entitled to that money, and if we wanted it back we should get it."
But the city argued that the officers signed away their rights to that money when they joined the force. New hires had to agree to give up their pension contributions if they left before working 10 years, which is when they would have become vested in the city's pension plan.
The city has since learned the hard way that that was "contrary" to state law, according to the 2009 ruling by Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Linda R. Allan. She noted it was the only pension plan in the state that made officers "forfeit" their contributions. The city lost its appeal to the 2nd District Court of Appeal in July.
The city's pension board decided not to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. So did the City Council, voting unanimously Aug. 5.
"Had we appealed it and lost, we would have owed more in attorneys' fees to the other side," said City Attorney John Wolfe. "We thought it wasn't worth spending the extra money."
The refund will come out of the police pension fund. Attorneys' fees will be decided in February. Neither side could say Wednesday how much they each spent on the legal battle.
But in December a judge will decide whether the city also has to pay the interest it earned from the plaintiffs' $1.5 million.
So why did the city decide to fight in the first place?
"Because we thought we were right," Wolfe said. He said the city was armed with a favorable opinion from the Florida Division of Retirement. But at trial he said the city was surprised to learn that the agency stepped outside of its authority in giving that opinion.
The plaintiffs' attorney, Jean Kwall, wonders if the city won't soon be violating state law again. That's because the new ordinance says officers have to ask for their money back after five years.
"You're supposed to just get it back," she said. "But they're requiring people to ask for their money back, which seems inconsistent with the language in the state statute."
Wolfe said the new ordinance is in accordance with state law. He said that provision gives officers a chance to retain their seniority in the pension plan if they later decide to return to the force.
Mayor Bill Foster said he also wanted to see the legal fight end.
"I'm not going to try and second-guess," he said. "Anytime that you're dealing with large dollar sums you have to look at one's legal rights. I guess the city's position at the time was they breached their contract and they're not entitled to a refund."
But in the end, the mayor noted: "It's their money."
Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8472.