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Records don't show practice is common

BY SANDRA PEDDIE | sandra.peddie@newsday.com

4:15 PM EST, February 14, 2008

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Attorney Lawrence Reich says what he was doing was "common practice" among Long Island attorneys.

Because he was listed as a full time employee at five school districts, he was able to obtain lifetime health benefits and a guaranteed public pension from New York State.

In fact, Long Island pension records examined by Newsday do not show that it is common.

To be sure, audits conducted by the Nassau County Comptroller have found special districts that allowed several private consultants to be treated as employees so that they could get benefits. But New York State pension records examined by Newsday show only a handful of private attorneys collecting pension credits from more than one municipal agency.

In either case, it is a practice harshly criticized by Nassau Comptroller Howard Weitzman.

"It's just taking advantage of the system," he said.

The amount of a public pension is based on the average of an employee's three highest years of pay multiplied by the number of years in the system. Typically, an employee can retire with a pension no higher than 75 percent of salary. That pension is also not subject to state or local taxes.

Unlike private-sector pensions, a public pension is constitutionally guaranteed in New York. "That's like gold," said E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative think tank. "Money can't buy that. There's no such thing in the private sector as big as some of these guys are getting that is completely guaranteed."

People who are able to add years or pay to increase the amount of their pensions have a "huge impact" on the system, Weitzman said. "Who's paying for that? Everybody else in the state is paying for that."

A Great Neck private attorney, who records show was carried as a part time employee by four villages while they were also paying his law firm a retainer, said he saw no problem with his arrangement, which he said he began in 1985.

"I was clearly a public employee as the village attorney," said Stephen Limmer, a partner in the law firm of Ackerman, Levine, Cullen, Brickman and Limmer.

He served as the attorney for four villages -- Great Neck, Kings Point, Port Washington North and Roslyn Estates. In 2006, records show, he earned a total of $267,752 from those villages.

At the same time, his law firm was paid fees for work outside the scope of his duties, he said. Unlike Reich, Limmer said he got his health benefits privately, and was listed as part time.

Limmer retired on June 1, 2006, and now collects a public pension of $62,482, according to records.

"If the benefit is available to somebody," he said, "why not take it?"