At least four San Diego firefighters have moved in and out of top management posts in recent years, allowing them to boost future retirement checks by as much as $30,000 a year, it was reported Sunday.
Four battalion chiefs were promoted to deputy chief or division chief, then after a year or two, they returned to their previous positions, according to internal documents reviewed by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The stints in top positions coincided with their enrollment in DROP, the city's controversial deferred-retirement program. This allowed them to take advantage of a special interest-bearing account and locked in the amount of their monthly pension benefits.
Pension payments are based on a worker's highest one-year salary.
"It wouldn't surprise me to see the system being gamed that way," said former pension board member Diann Shipione, the whistleblower who warned about irregularities in the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System.
Fire Chief Jeff Bowman, who recently announced his retirement, denied that the promotions were meant to boost pension checks.
"That's absurd," he told the newspaper. "I wouldn't do that. That's a misuse of taxpayers' funds."
Each of the firefighters was asked to step down from the management posts for personal or professional reasons unrelated to benefits, Bowman said.
Moving between management and rank-and-file positions is lucrative for employees who sign up for DROP, which was created in 1997. The program enables longtime employees to direct pension contributions and related funds into special accounts that earn 8 percent interest. When employees join the program, they must retire within five years. Upon leaving, they can collect their DROP account money in a lump sum, while receiving monthly pension checks from money they earned before joining the program.
Nearly 900 veteran employees are enrolled in DROP. Last year, the City Council discontinued the program for anyone hired after June 30, 2005.
Battalion Chief John Thomson, a 30-year veteran of the Fire-Rescue Department, signed up for DROP on Feb. 11, four days after it was announced that he was stepping down as deputy chief of operations, a job he held for a year. When Thomson retires, his benefits will be tied to his deputy chief's base salary -- $133,600 a year. He will receive roughly that amount each year, based on the pension formula and related calculations.
If Thomson, 55, hadn't filled the deputy slot and had still enrolled in DROP, he would have received about $103,400 in annual retirement payments.
City Attorney Michael Aguirre believes DROP is illegal, arguing that those who crafted and approved the program had a direct financial stake in it. He has sued, hoping to persuade a judge to force the city to roll it back entirely.
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