Already suffering from a manpower shortage, the V.I. Police Department may be out nearly 30 more officers come Monday, now that a change in local retirement laws has gone into effect.
Part of a hefty reform bill passed by the Senate in 2005, the change was not immediately enforced by the Government Employees’ Retirement System, so the implementation date was eventually extended until the end of 2010, according to various officials. This specific provision says that government employees who have sick and annual leave stored up will lose it all and have to start fresh at the beginning of the year unless they are able to retire.
Those who cannot and want to keep their hours once the new year starts will begin paying both the employer and employee contributions on accumulated leave – leave that would have, prior to Saturday, been converted into service credit and put toward their retirement annuities.
"For a retirement-eligible employee making $20,000 per year it will cost up to $5,400 to convert one year of leave, 2080 hours, into service credit, while it will cost an employee making $65,000 or more up to $ 17,600 dollars," according to a statement issued in December by the Personnel Division.
Some have feared the new provision would cause a mass exodus of employees from government service come Jan. 1, but GERS officials said Friday that the number of employees filing for retirement at this point is about average — with the exception of the Police Department and Corrections, whose employees can retire after serving a minimum of 20 years instead of the standard 30.
"Based on seniority, each officer is given a certain amount of hours of sick time, and if they don’t use it, it’s banked at the end of the year," Police Commissioner Novelle Francis Jr. said Friday. "Before, those hours would have been put toward that officer’s retirement, but now, it can’t be used, and because of that, the concern within the department is that at the end of this year, we’re going to be losing between 28 to 30 more officers."
It was announced this week that Francis would be among the group, which is largely made up of VIPD veterans with 20 or more years of service. Francis said the new provision was a factor in his decision to retire, since he would be losing, come Saturday, nearly three years’ worth of leave time that would push his now 24 years of service up to almost 27.
While Francis said the new provision is meant to safeguard against the future inflation of the more than $1 billion unfunded liability plaguing GERS, the result — other than the loss of more cops — is that officers will now be taking a lot more time off during the year, leaving more holes than before.
There are some contingency plans in place. Francis said a new police class is in session, and promotional exams were just given, which will help fill some of the gaps.
"But you can never fully replace experience, all those experienced officers, overnight," he added.
For GERS, however, the new change spells relief for the system and might not, if the Senate gets involved, mean anything for the employees. Senators went ahead and appropriated $3 million to cover the difference for employees in 2010, allowing those who retired by noon Friday to keep all their leave and not pay a cent.
"It’s up to the Senate whether they want to continue to do so," GERS Administrator Austin Nibbs said in a brief telephone interview. "But on our side, we cannot continue to give service credit for contributions that haven’t been paid."
Personnel Director Kenneth Hermon echoed these remarks, saying the change had everything to do with the "long-term sustainability of the system." But other than VIPD and Corrections, the only real impact will come from the wave of baby boomers who have worked the required amount of time and were going to retire whether the law was implemented or not, he said.
"The reform act was really not the catalyst," Hermon said Friday. "Everyone had two years to prepare for this, and I’m glad it’s finally going into effect because it will save the system a lot of money."
