BILLERICA \u2013 Andrew Graham, the supervisor of buildings and grounds for the school department, could owe the Middlesex County Retirement System more than $100,000 \u2013 one estimate puts the total at $116,000.<\/p>\n
The Middlesex County Retirement Board opened a hearing on Graham\u2019s case at its offices in Billerica on Sept. 18. Graham may be the first Dracut school department retiree to learn they owe the retirement system money.<\/p>\n
At the joint meeting of the School Committee and Board of Selectmen on Sept. 15, Town Manager Kate Hodges said this case, and potentially at least one other, is holding up an audit of the town\u2019s books, and, therefore, obtaining the town\u2019s bond rating.<\/p>\n
Graham is a \u201cpost-retirement employee\u201d of the school district. He has worked for the schools for 53 years, the last 10 years as a part-timer receiving a pension. After his first year receiving a pension, the amount was upped by $15,000 under state guidelines.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s website states, \u201cA retiree must stop working when either of the following is true:<\/p>\n
\u2013 They have worked 1200 hours in a calendar year or<\/p>\n
\u2013 They have earned the difference between the current salary of the position they retired from and their pension.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current salary of the position is $145,000, Graham told the board.<\/p>\n
Graham had reached the 1,200-hour limit by early August when he received word from the MCRB telling him to stop working. Whether Graham had already exceeded the dollar limit was not stated.<\/p>\n
His average annual earnings were $112,000 over the last nine years, according to Lisa Maloney, chief administrator of the county\u2019s retirement system.<\/p>\n
Graham told the board that before retiring he met with an MCRB retirement counselor and followed the advice he received. \u201cI\u2019ve now been informed that the information I received was wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no intent to ever\u2026 it was never about the money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
MCRB Board Chair Thomas Gibson said, \u201cThe onus is on the employer and employee to track hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson explained, \u201cThe state has no central registry for retirees who have gone back into public employment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the MCRB has taken the case under advisement, Gibson advised Graham that \u201cWe have very little discretion here. We have to do what the statute requires.\u201d The board cannot waive excess earnings or excess hours, he said.<\/p>\n
The MCRB does not have a copy of the letter Graham presented at the meeting, Gibson said. The letter Graham gave them was what he received from the retirement counselor 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s name was not mentioned during the Sept. 15 joint board meeting, but \u201ca personnel matter\u201d was referenced and had apparently been discussed in executive sessions. His name became public when the MCRB published its agenda for the Sept. 18 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BILLERICA \u2013 Andrew Graham, the supervisor of buildings and grounds for the school department, could owe the Middlesex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,25836,268,85,46,224,266,267,10698],"class_list":{"0":"post-30176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dracut","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}