DiVincenzo simultaneously collects pension and salary as Essex County executive
Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr., above center, in a January photo. DiVincenzo has defended his right to simultaneously collect a pension and a salary for the same job.ESSEX COUNTY — Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. became the best-known member of an exclusive club last year.
He joined Union County Sheriff Ralph Froehlich, a member since 1999. There’s also a handful of little-known county surrogates, elected workers who handle legal tasks.
The connection? All receive a pension and a salary for the same job simultaneously.
While cops can’t retire and keep policing and teachers can’t retire and keep teaching, a select few elected officials are allowed to retire and keep working in the same position.
It’s all thanks to a loophole that has grown since its inception in 1985. The law allows public employees to retire while still holding elected office, as long as they previously held a different public job. In DiVincenzo’s case, he previously worked as a parks supervisor and school athletics coordinator.
W. Robert Hentges, the Cape May County surrogate for the past 37 years, started collecting his pension in 1998. His salary is $107,500 and and his annual pension is $39,517, according to state records.
He said he feels no remorse about the decision because he wanted to take advantage of the law to help his family. At the time, he had a mortgage, a home improvement loan, one child going to college and another attending business school and getting married.
"It’s the law," said Hentges, 73, who is still working as surrogate. "I was paying $150 a month in salary in pension into the pension system. Rather than paying that, I took an early pension. I’ll sacrifice what I would get if I didn’t take it. But at least it would give me some financial ability to help my children."
Hentges said he qualified for the pension because he worked as an aide to a state senator for a year in 1968, earning a salary of $1,000 for the year of service.
DiVincenzo’s decision to start collecting his pension last year ignited controversy over the law because the county executive is a political ally of Gov. Chris Christie and an outspoken proponent of rolling back pensions and health care benefits. The public employee unions he has angered quickly criticized him Friday, calling for him either to resign or suspend his pension.
Since "retiring" in August he’s been receiving a $5,738 monthly pension payment. His salary was $153,207 last year, according to state records.
"Joe DiVincenzo’s greed is exceeded only by his hypocrisy," said Hetty Rosenstein, state director for the Communications Workers of America, in a statement. "DiVincenzo has to make a choice. He can either retire for real, or he can stop double dipping. What he is doing may have been legal — but it certainly isn’t ethical."
State Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Anthony Wieners issued a statement saying, "This exposes him as a fraud and just another politician who lies to the public."
DiVincenzo said he’s not going to resign and plans to run for a fourth term, saying he earned his pension after just over 29 years of public service.
"People have their own point of view," he said. "We have been going through difficult labor negotiations. And I understand why they’re upset. I had to make a decision that was in the best interests of my family."
He also didn’t object to pending legislation that would close the loophole.
"The governor feels very strongly about changing the law. I’m very open to it," he said.
The original law was signed into law in 1985, and the goal was to allow long-term public employees to serve in elected office without being denied their pension.
At that point, such elected officials could only serve out the term they were elected for and could only collect 60 percent of their salary. It only applied to civilian employees, not police officers.
The law was later loosened to remove the term limit and the salary restriction. Then in 1999, a second law applied the same rules to elected law enforcement positions, such as sheriff.
That year, Froehlich, the Union County sheriff since 1977, started drawing his pension. His salary last year was $142,728 and he receives an annual pension of $84,489, according to state records. He said he "retired" only when required because of his age. Froehlich, 80, won re-election most recently in November.
Union County Sheriff Ralph Froehlich"I’m not a legislator," the sheriff said. "Very basically — and very honestly — I’m a cop."
Sen. Steven Oroho (R-Sussex) said he first learned of the loophole when a freeholder in 2005. He received a call that the sheriff was retiring. Concerned that something had happened to the longtime law enforcement official, he called to check on him. But the sheriff assured him that he was just fine and, in fact, was staying on the job.
"I said, how can this possibly be?" He said. "I did a little more research and found there was a loophole."
One of the first bills he proposed as senator would repeal the law. It hasn’t gotten traction, he said, because lawmakers are concerned about the effect on small-town mayors and local officials.
"It should not be a law, it should not be an exception," Oroho said. "It’s not about any single individual — its about policy."
Oroho and Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) want to go even further. They don’t want any public employee to get a pension and a salary at the same time, even if the jobs are unrelated.
Beck said pensions are not supposed to boost paychecks.
"It’s not illegal," she said. "But it really wasn’t the intent."
By Chris Megerian and Seth Augenstein/The Star-Ledger
Bob Considine contributed to this report.