State takes away his pension

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli yesterday revoked the

pension of Garden City attorney Jerome Ehrlich and rescinded the pension

credits of two other Long Island lawyers who were improperly listed on public

payrolls while in private practice.

Ehrlich, who in 2006 started collecting an annual pension of $34,029, must

repay $81,426 to the State Retirement System, the comptroller's office said.

The other two attorneys are William Glass of Port Jefferson and Raymond Mineo

of Elmont.

"We are recouping pension benefits that erroneously were paid," DiNapoli

said in a prepared statement.

The actions bring to 45 the number of individuals statewide that have

either lost pensions or had service credits rescinded by the state comptroller

as part of a review of attorneys who were improperly on public payrolls. The

review began in April after a series of Newsday stories.

Ehrlich, 71, formerly of the Garden City law firm Ehrlich, Frazer &

Feldman, declined to comment. His attorney, John Carmen of Garden City, said,

"We are disappointed that after 40 years of affirming Mr. Ehrlich's right to

participate in the pension system, the comptroller has arbitrarily chosen to

announce that they have been wrong for four decades."

DiNapoli's review found that Ehrlich was improperly reported as an employee

by three Long Island school districts, allowing him to earn 36 years of

service credit over a 40-year period. The districts - Hewlett-Woodmere, Great

Neck and Bellmore-Merrick - did not maintain time sheets or set fixed hours for

Ehrlich. The districts also paid Ehrlich's law firm hundreds of thousands of

dollars for legal work, records show.

Seven Suffolk County fire districts and the Village of Port Jefferson

improperly reported Glass as a part-time employee simultaneously for periods

ranging from one to 13 years, allowing him to earn about 10.5 years of service,

the comptroller's office found. Neither he nor Mineo have begun collecting a

pension yet.

Glass, 53, declined to comment for this story. Earlier this year, he said

in an interview that he solicited an employment agreement with at least three

of the districts to get retirement benefits. "I live here, I pay taxes too," he

said then.

DiNapoli's review found that West Hempstead Sanitary District No. 6

improperly reported Mineo as a part-time employee for 11 years, until December

2004, allowing him to earn nearly two years of service credit. Mineo, 59, said

in an interview yesterday he "most respectfully disagrees with the state

comptroller," but has no intentions of fighting the ruling. He said the

district didn't require time sheets of him and that he attended scheduled

evening meetings for them. Mineo is currently chief of staff for the Town of

Hempstead.

DiNapoli's office yesterday also announced it had rescinded a total of 9.1

years of service credit from two upstate attorneys who were improperly reported

as employees of BOCES.