The Pulaski County Council got a closer look earlier this month at proposed changes to the sheriff’s deputies’ retirement plan. Actuary Stan Brown with OneAmerica explained that the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department is one of about a dozen in the state that still use a 20-year maximum service plan. “So what that means is only 20 years count for any deputy’s benefit,” he explained. “If you have someone work beyond 20 years, those years don’t count in determining the monthly retirement benefit.”
Brown has drawn up proposals extending that time period to either 26 or 32 years. “If you adopted the 26-year plan, the contribution goes up from around $102,000 to about $120,000, so an $18,000-a-year increase in the funding requirements, about three percent of pay.” He said the 32-year plan would further increase the county’s annual contribution by about another $7,600.
The change would only apply to current employees, not those who have already retired. Sheriff Jeff Richwine felt the update would help encourage deputies to stay with Pulaski County and increase stability in the department. “We’re talking $18,000. I know that’s a lot,” he said. “I don’t want to make that sound like it’s nothing, but when you’re talking about the eight to 15 people that work every night and do all the things that deputies do for all of us, I don’t know that that’s a lot of money, as far as hoping that someday, the make it to their retirement and be able to live and not have to spend it all on health insurance.” Richwine said the department might be able to cover the cost out of the revenues from housing out-of-county jail inmates or from other parts of his budget.
Brown said that if the county wants to change the plan, now’s the time to do it. “The demographics in this plan right now make it favorable to do, even though there’s obviously a cost,” he said. “The average age of the active deputies was about 37 at the start of this year and the average service, four-and-a-half years. And so in our projections to come up with the new contribution amounts, in the next 10 years, no one benefits out of this because you’re not going to have anybody leaving at retirement age with more than 20 years of service.”
Council members said they wanted more time to look over the projected figures before taking any action. The goal is to implement the changes by the start of next year.
