More than a dozen current city employees – including the city police chief and fire chief, among others – have had their retirement benefits reinstated, thanks to an add-on agenda item at Monday’s Henderson City Council meeting.
Melissa Elliott, council member and chair of the Human Resources Committee, told WIZS News Tuesday that the council had voted to reinstate the benefits for a total of 20 current and former employees who would not have enough years in to qualify for full retirement benefits when the state changed the eligibility requirements.
“We got it back,” Elliott said in a phone interview.
Council member Garry Daeke said the cost will probably be along the lines of $192,000. “That’s money that won’t be available for other things,” Daeke said in a telephone interview Tuesday.”
When this particular group of employees was hired, there was one policy in effect, but that changed in the mid-2000’s.
All new hires understand that they must have 20 years of full-time employment to be eligible for state retirement benefits, including health benefits until they reach age 65 when Medicare kicks in.
Elliott said she is happy that this group of city employees, some of which now are retired, will have access to the benefits that were in place when they were hired.
She added that the nearby municipalities of Oxford, Wake Forest and Louisburg also have voted to reinstate the benefits.
Daeke said when the state changed the policy, local leaders were advised that there simply wasn’t enough money in the coffers to be able to afford it – “there was too much on the books to pay out,” Daeke said in a phone interview.
Although he wasn’t ready to call it a broken promise, Daeke acknowledged that it was a “serious change” for city employees to face when the state policy was amended back in 2009.
“The good news is, it’s been reinstated,” Daeke said.
