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Cuomo to host hearings today on double-dipping

BY SANDRA PEDDIE AND EDEN LAIKIN | sandra.peddie@newsday.com and eden.laikin@newsday.com

May 22, 2008

After serving as the interim superintendent of Roslyn for two years, David Helme did not have to look far for another job. A retiree collecting a yearly pension of $105,829.68, he now is earning an additional $153,621 salary as the interim principal of Searingtown Elementary School in the Herricks school district.

Each year, thousands are certified as principals statewide, according to the state School Boards Association. Herricks Superintendent John Bierwirth declined to specify the reasons for hiring a retiree instead of giving the job to a new candidate.

"It was a decision the board made," he said.

Helme, 68, who records show has had at least five interim jobs since retiring in 1999, did not return calls. He was hired for the Herricks job last September to work until the end of the school year.

School administrators statewide say shortages of qualified candidates force them to hire retirees, who then are allowed to collect both a pension and a salary - a practice known as double-dipping. Newsday previously reported that at least 40 central office administrators on Long Island are collecting two checks from taxpayers, as retirees and interims, earning a total of nearly $11 million. But records show the practice is far more widespread, extending beyond central offices to the jobs of principal and teacher - even though thousands of people are certified for those jobs each year.

In the 2006-2007 school year, 9,533 people were certified as teachers in Nassau and Suffolk, according to state records.

Double-dipping - as well as the issue of lawyers being reported as school employees to get public benefits - is among the subjects to be aired today at a public hearing that begins at 10 a.m. at Farmingdale State College. State legislators and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose office has opened probes into widespread pension fraud uncovered by Newsday stories, will preside over the meeting.

Records reviewed by Newsday show that in the past five years, at least 265 double-dippers have worked in Long Island schools. Among those, there have been at least 51 principals and 68 teachers - jobs for which there are frequently scores, and sometimes hundreds, of qualified applicants. Among the jobs filled by retirees were English, social studies and music teachers - jobs for which there is a large pool of applicants, educators say.

Under state law, earnings for retirees under age 65 who are collecting a public pension and who work in another public job are limited to $30,000 a year, unless they get a waiver from the state. The state Education Department has set up a review process to ensure that retirees are hired only when necessary, lawmakers say. However, records show that oversight is limited, waivers are not tracked and at least 14 Long Island school districts have employed interims beyond the statutory two-year limit.

"It's a lack of oversight, and it's an unacceptable policy that overcompensates retired employees," said George Deabold, of School Watch, a Long Island-based school advocacy group.

One person out of the department's roughly 3,000 employees handles waiver requests, and that is only one of her responsibilities, department spokesman Tom Dunn said. A 2005 Suffolk district attorney's grand jury report on schools found a waiver evaluation typically takes from 10 minutes to an hour.

Dunn said the department does not track who has received waivers.

An average of 420 waivers are granted statewide each year. About a third of those are granted for teaching jobs, Dunn said.

Staff writer Chau Lam contributed to this story.

HEARING TODAY

State attorney general's hearing on pension abuse

TIME AND PLACE

10 a.m. at Roosevelt Hall, Farmingdale State College.

EXPECTED SPEAKERS Suffolk DA Thomas Spota; Nassau DA Kathleen Rice; Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki; Nassau Comptroller Howard Weitzman; Thomas Rogers, NYS Council of Superintendents; Richard Bivone, Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce; Robert Hanna, Nassau BOCES; Gary Bixhorn, Eastern BOCES; Patrick Nicolosi, Elmont civic activist

EXPECTED TOPICS

Double-dipping among school administrators and teachers

The state's waiver system allowing retirees to return to work

Professionals on school and special district payrolls while paid as independent contractors

Those wishing to submit testimony can bring it to the hearing or submit it by e-mail to: pension.integrity@oag.state.ny.us.

LEGISLATORS PRESIDING OVER THE HEARING

State Sen. Dean Skelos (R- Rockville Centre); state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson); Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst); Assemb. Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead); Assemb. Harvey Weisenberg (D- Long Beach)