Virginia city official defends boosting worker’s pension by $400,000
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Richmond’s top city official defended a decision to transfer one employee’s 800 hours of unused sick leave from her previous city job so she could receive $400,0000 more in pension compensation.
It’s “not a unique transaction,” Chief Administrative Officer Byron Marshall said, according to a recent city audit.
That only raises more unanswered questions about what other transactions happen in Richmond’s senior-level offices as the state drowns in nearly $2 billion of debt, according to the city’s most recent comprehensive annual financial report.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Marshall restored a sick leave balance for Sharon Judkins, the city’s outgoing deputy chief administrative officer of finance and administration, from a previous stint with the city so she could receive a higher pension rate. Those 807.7 unused sick leave hours, which Marshall considered service time, would have translated to roughly $400,000 more in pension cash.
An anonymous city employee tipped off City Auditor Umesh Dalal.