JACKSONVILLE, FL
May 10, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County (“CTDC”) praise Mayor Alvin Brown for his stand on cost-savings at the new courthouse and congratulate him for his veto of the City Council’s attempt to force disbursement of $750,000 in taxpayer money to pay for furniture in 37 hearing rooms.
“At over $20,000 for a table and chairs in each room the Mayor is right to say the courts need to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible with what is in the current courthouse and in city inventories,” said Victor Wilhelm, a director and former president of the CTDC. “The Mayor’s frugal attitude is refreshingly different from that of Chief Judge Donald Moran, who presided over the nearly doubled construction costs for the courts and who has threatened to let the new facility sit unused unless he gets new furniture. There is no irony in the fact that while the Mayor took a voluntary pay cut Judge Moran is both collecting a $113,000 annual pension as a retired judge and his $142,000 salary as a sitting judge, and is more than halfway vested to getting a second pension as judge. On top of that Judge Moran got a lump sum retirement distribution from the state in 2008 of over $571,000. The judge said he might loan the courthouse a few card tables until the furniture he wants arrives. Maybe Judge Moran could use part of the million dollars plus he’s been paid by the taxpayers in the last three and a half years to chip in.”
Nick Callahan, a CTDC member who initially researched the “double dip” enjoyed by Judge Moran, noted that technically the Judge “retired” for pension collection purposes in June 2003. For five years after that the state paid Judge Moran his full salary and also paid his pension, initially over $89,000 a year, into a Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) account. In 2008 Judge Moran was allowed by the retirement system to finish his term as judge and officially retire from state employment, taking the lump sum and then collecting his pension directly. Judge Moran, however, took advantage of a loophole by taking office again following his unopposed election in 2008. The judge then began also earning credit toward a second state pension from the start of his new term as though he were a newly elected official. If Judge Moran serves or buys in another two years and nine months he will be vested and eligible to receive a second lifetime pension on top of the first. Assuming Judge Moran is reelected in 2014 and serves until his mandatory retirement date at the end of 2015, his second pension should start at approximately $30,000 a year, on top of the first pension (currently over $113,000).
Information in this press release is based on responses to public record requests directed to Senior Benefits Analysts at the Florida Department of Management Services, Division of Retirement, Research and Education Section, and applicable Florida Statutes. Additional information is available from John Winkler, CTDC president, jswpa@yahoo.com or (904) 384-9918.
