Pitts' pension includes 19 months' sick leave

By BONNA de la CRUZ
Staff Writer, Tennessean.com
December 7, 2005

The former head of the Tennessee Highway Patrol stands to get 19 months of accumulated sick leave tacked on to his pension, state officials said yesterday.

That will boost Col. Lynn Pitts' pension payments by $171 a month, said Ed Hennessee, assistant to the state treasurer, the office that handles Tennessee's retirement program.

Pitts will get a pension of nearly $5,000 a month for the next 18 months, and a slightly lower payment after that. He was asked to resign yesterday after trying to buy a boat the state had seized and put up for auction on the Internet, which is an apparent violation of state law.

State officials said they would have to look into what effect a conviction would have on his retirement benefits.

The law Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips cited yesterday in asking Pitts to resign says anyone caught buying or trying to buy property their agency confiscated "shall forfeit any pay or compensation."

Phillips later said Pitts did not know he was doing anything wrong when he tried to buy the boat.

However, the provision banning purchases of seized items, along with the language about forfeiting pay, also appears on page 3 of the Safety Department's official "conflict of interest" policy, which Pitts signed and dated Feb. 19, 2004.

Based on that, state Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Tennessee Highway Patrol, said he wants to know whether Pitts should forfeit any pay or compensation.

State workers are dismissed so infrequently under that law — and others related to official misconduct — state officials said they'll have to look into whether it would affect Pitts' banked sick leave.

"It happens so rarely we need to do the research, and we don't know what the investigation will yield. There's a lot of what-ifs here," said Nat Johnson, the state's deputy personnel commissioner.

The 19 months of sick leave will be added to Pitts' 31 years of service — used to calculate his pension payment — as if he actually worked the time, Hennessee said.

The colonel won't be allowed to take it all in a lump-sum payment.

Pitts, who is 60, will get a pension payment of $4,980 per month until he turns 62, Hennessee said. At that point, he will be eligible for Social Security payments and his pension will drop to $3,520.

"On a gut level, it seems too rich," Norris said.

The question of pensions for former state workers arose earlier this year when five former and sitting state lawmakers were charged in the Operation Tennessee Waltz sting.

Some citizens were outraged when they learned that four of those charged would still be eligible for their state pensions, even if they are convicted of felonies.

Norris questioned whether it's appropriate for Pitts to get his pension if he broke the law.

"That's a question all taxpayers should be asking," Norris said.

"It rubs me the wrong way, but I haven't looked into the legal issues."

Pitts made an annual salary of $97,300 before he resigned, Hennessee said.

His pension is based on his years of service and his average salary over the course of his career in state government. It was not clear yesterday how much vacation time Pitts had banked.