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OPINIONS
Editorial: W.Va. public officials retirement system needs complete overhaul
Wayne County will be without its chief elections official on Tuesday. County Clerk Bob Paisley retired last week, just four days before an election that could see an exceptionally heavy turnout.
Why? So he could be elected to the county commission and draw on his retirement at the same time.
Paisley defeated longtime Commissioner Jim Booton in the Democratic primary election. There is no Republican candidate on the ballot, so Paisley is assured of election. When Paisley checked with the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board, he was told he must leave office two months prior to taking another public position to get his county clerk pension.
This is the second case in the Tri-State this fall of a public official retiring and returning to the courthouse in January with the idea of drawing a pension while still working. The other is Cabell County Circuit Judge Al Ferguson.
Local government needs to be credible in the eyes of voters. Many voters say cases such these confirm their suspicions that politicians are at the courthouse to benefit themselves at taxpayer expense.
As campaigning for this election has shown, this does not end at the county courthouse. Mike Teets, the Republican candidate for West Virginia commissioner of agriculture, is hitting incumbent Democrat Gus Douglass hard on the fact that Douglass is drawing his state salary while also drawing a state pension.
Douglass retired as agriculture commissioner in 1988 after losing in the Democratic primary election for governor. He began collecting a pension soon thereafter. But Douglass ran for agriculture commissioner again in 1992 and won. He has been re-elected three times since then and is running again this year. For the past 16 years, he has drawn both his salary and his pension.
What some people call "double dipping" is perfectly legal despite the fact that many people in the voting public see it as just plain wrong to be paid twice for the same job. Gov. Joe Manchin has promised to make closing this option for judges a priority in his legislative package for next year. He should look at all existing and likely cases, too. The entire state government pension system needs a thorough re-examination.
One thing that could help would be for the Consolidated Public Retirement Board to produce an annual report of all state employees and elected officials who are receiving both a salary and a government pension. The pension can be from state or local government. The public needs to know who it is paying twice or more for the same work.
The private sector looks at situations like this much more closely, and government should, too.
