Letter to the Editor

I sent a "letter to the editor" of the Columbus Dispatch today concerning an editorial published today; the letter probably will never see print, but here it is for my vast blog audience:

Editor:

I applaud state's retirement systems' managements for refusing to provide the group of eight newspapers with "records of salaries, benefits, ages, years of service and contributions to the systems for each of the 400,000 people receiving benefits." (Dispatch editorial August 11)

While the Dispatch asserts in the editorial that "Statistical detail on salaries, payouts, age of retirement and the like isn't personal when no names are attached," in many cases it would be quite easy to determine an individual retiree's name from that information and public information available from employers. To cite an obvious example, consider former Columbus Police Chief James Jackson, who retired March 16, 2009 with 51 years of service. Armed with this information, how difficult would it be to determine "personal" information on Chief Jackson's retirement benefit?

Other items requested by the newspapers include each benefit recipient's age and last place of employment. Since in many smaller entities only one or two employees retire each year, identifying such individuals would also be quite simple.

Have there been "abrupt changes in pay that could signal manipulations of pay that could signal manipulations to boost benefits?" Of course there have been! But such changes could also signal a promotion to a higher-paying position. And there's no way the Dispatch could investigate further without determining the individual's identity! In any case it's the employer who increased the employee's pay, not the retirement system. And the retirement systems have already proposed changes to how final average salary is calculated to address "spiking."

The news media and the public are right to be concerned about the operations of Ohio's retirement systems. However, I suspect the detailed information requested appears more likely to be used for still more sensationalized articles concerning individuals receiving "exorbitant" pension benefits rather than an honest evaluation of the systems.


Tom Severns
Westerville

Addendum: Surprise - the Dispatch published the letter on Aug. 16.