Pulaski County Sheriff’s Deputies will have a new retirement plan, starting January 1. The county council voted Monday to change the system to a 32-year plan. Currently, the number of years of service that count toward deputies’ retirement benefits is limited to 20.
Council members had also considered a 26-year option, but Sheriff Jeff Richwine felt the 32-year plan would do a better job of keeping deputies with his department. “I can’t guarantee you people are going to stay, but we’ve got, probably, four to five of these young guys that are pretty stable,” he told council members. “I mean, they’re married, so they’re not going to find a girl in Fulton County and move to Fulton County because they want to live over there. They’re pretty stable. They have homes here and all that stuff, so that’s the guys that this is for.”
The new plan is expected to cost the county about another $28,000 a year. Richwine thought he could cover at least half of that increase out of his department’s funds. The county is already covering part of the cost of the current retirement plan cost out of its General Fund, to supplement the Sheriff’s Department’s paper service revenues that are earmarked for that purpose.
