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Mayor W. Jeff Holtzinger received little support in his effort to prevent double benefits for retirees are rehired to the city. Instead, the Board of Aldermen said they wanted first to take a comprehensive look at the entire benefits system.

Holtzinger (R) presented changes to the city's pension plans last week to mitigate some of the financial fallout from the controversial Early Retirement Incentive Plan.

He said he didn't think it was fair for retirees — including those who received the city's early retirement buyout — to get two pensions, and wanted to keep with his promise that he would try to address any problems that could arise from the highly contested plan.

Initially wanting to take the amendments to the 25- and 30-year plans straight to a vote, Holtzinger presented it to the aldermen at their Aug. 5 workshop, where aldermen gave mixed and minimal feedback on the isolated changes, but said they would be open to looking at the city's benefits system as a whole.

"I think it's going to be a very sensitive issue, but I think we need to look at [the plans]," Alderman C. Paul Smith (R) said. "We're going to be having to [look at] how we deal with our city expenditures, so now is the time to be doing that."

Alderman Marcia Hall (D) said she believed that the savings that Holtzinger's proposed amendments touted — 17 percent of a 30-year retiree's salary, and 14 percent of a 25-year retiree's salary — would not pan out because the city would have to hire someone to do the job's anyway and pay out benefits for them.

Alderman Donna Kuzemchak (D) said she believed that the issue of double dipping into the pension pot was discussed during the vetting of the early retirement program, which aldermen approved in April of last year. Kuzemchak did not vote for the plan, as she was out on sick leave.

She said that the she believes that the city needs to go back and examine all of the problems that could result from the plan. An outside review found the plan had underestimated costs and overshot savings.

"I think that we did not properly follow through with the discussion … and I just think it's a shame that some people who took this, get to have this," Kuzemchak said.

One of those people is Frederick mayoral candidate Ron Tobin, who quickly made it clear that he would not cash in on a second pension, though he is eligible for one as an early buyout recipient who was later rehired to the city.

Tobin said last week that he will not participate in a second pension plan that he is eligible for under the city's benefits system. Tobin (R) said he was recently informed that he, along with any retired employee who was rehired by the city, is eligible for a second pension.

"That totally shocked me," Tobin said. "I will not accept a second retirement benefit."

Tobin, who is the executive assistant to the mayor, was one of 67 employees who took the city's Early Retirement Incentive Program last year, which paid two years' salary and pension benefits to eligible employees.

Holtzinger said he only recently found out that anyone who took the early buyout was eligible to re-enroll in a second pension if they were rehired.

Tobin was one of the 24 early retirees who were rehired by the city. He was hired back at a base pay of $85,123, a $557 pay cut from his previous salary, but under the agreement that he would not receive benefits, including health insurance and retirement pay, he said.

He said he did not know he was eligible to take on another pension plan, and e-mailed the mayor and the city's human resources department on Wednesday to inform them that he will not enroll in a second plan.

The e-mail read: "The Internal Revenue Service approves employer retirement guidelines. The City of Frederick is in compliance with these directives.

"However, according to the language of the retirement plan, I would be eligible for a second retirement benefit. Upon my rehire it was conditional that I would not receive health insurance or retirement benefits. Therefore, I am officially declaring that I will not accept a second retirement benefit."

Tobin has been under fire in the weeks since he filed to run for mayor, as critics have voiced concerns that he benefited from the buyout, which has become a political punchline for fiscal irresponsibility.

Tobin said in an interview that he had nothing to do with the aldermen's legislative decision to offer the program in April 2008, and that he took it for the sake of his family. The second pension, he said, is a different matter.

"I've become a victim of a benefit that I had no control over," Tobin said. "This, I do, and to me, there's no way I can participate in this."

E-mail Erica L. Green at egreen@gazette.net.