HARRISBURG — State lawmakers took a major step Wednesday to prevent corrupt public employees from hanging on to their pensions after being convicted.
The House of Representatives approved a bill to expand the list of crimes for which public employees who have committed wrongdoing on the job would have to forfeit their pensions — a step that gained momentum after some Philadelphia legislators caught in a corruption sting cut plea deals to save their retirement benefits.
The bill that the House approved and sent to the Senate would expand the list to include a conviction, guilty plea or plea of no contest to any felony related to public employment, in addition to the crimes that already trigger forfeiture.
The vote was 188-2.
“What my bill does is take away the discretion that exists within prosecutors to play games within those laws and pick a felony that is other than what is stated,” said Rep. Scott Petri, R-Bucks, the bill’s prime sponsor.
Versions of the pension forfeiture bill have been introduced with little success in past years. But the latest initiative gained steam after convictions stemming from a once-aborted sting of Philadelphia legislators.
Three years ago, newly inaugurated Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane secretly shut down the sting, which had caught Democratic officials from Philadelphia on tape accepting money or gifts from an undercover operative. Ms. Kane said she dropped the probe because she believed it was poorly managed and possibly tainted by racism. The elected officials snared in the sting are black.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams resurrected the case and brought charges in 2014 and 2015 against onetime Philadelphia Traffic Court Judge Thomasine Tynes as well as five former or current state legislators: Ron Waters, Michelle Brownlee, Harold James, Louise Bishop and Vanessa Lowery Brown.
Most struck deals with prosecutors that allowed them to keep their government pensions. Many had been in public service for decades.
All but two — Ms. Brown and Ms. Bishop — pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the sting.
Ms. Bishop, one of the Capitol’s longest serving legislators, late last year pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge, and resigned from the Legislature. Her annual pension is $96,135.84, according to information from the State Employees Retirement System. That is on top of the $191,099 lump-sum payment that represents the contributions she made into her pension.
Ms. Brown is fighting the charges and won last month’s primary for her seat representing portions of West Philadelphia.
Ms. Tynes, who accepted a $2,000 Tiffany bracelet from the sting’s undercover operative, was sentenced to 23 months in prison, concurrent with a federal prison term she is serving in an unrelated ticket-fixing case. Still, she was able to keep her estimated $68,000 annual pension because of a quirk in the state’s pension forfeiture law.
klangley@post-gazette.com or 717-787-2141 or @karen_langley
First Published: May 18, 2016, 7:38 p.m.
