Erie County government and Roswell Park Cancer Institute are among the initial targets of a

state probe into pension padding.

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday sent letters to 28 local and state agencies

throughout New York to determine how overtime is being used &#8212 or abused &#8212 to

increase employee pensions.

Cuomo called pension padding a &#8220scam&#8221 upon taxpayers that&#8217s been going on for

decades and needs to stop.

&#8220Enough is enough,&#8221 he said.

The 28 agencies being asked for information &#8212 including Erie County and Roswell Park

&#8212 represent the first phase of the investigation, which is likely to spread to other

governments and agencies in the future, including the City of Buffalo, said Cuomo spokesman

John T. Milgrim.

&#8220This was the first wave,&#8221 he said.

The initial agencies were selected, Cuomo said, because they have some of the highest

salary or pension payments in the state.

Erie County government, not including Erie County Medical Center, will pay $33.6 million

into the state pension system this year for its current employees, Personnel Commissioner John

W. Greenan said.

Erie County has its share of employees who are able to pad their pension by racking up

large amounts of overtime in their final years on the job. In the Sheriff&#8217s Office, for

example, 40 deputies worked enough overtime in 2006 to turn their $50,000 job into a $100,000

one, records show.

The following year, two of those deputies retired with approximately $85,000 annual

pensions &#8212 for a job that carries a base pay of about $54,000 a year.

Similar scenarios occur in the county&#8217s Public Works Department, where mechanics are

in short supply. One, for example, added $47,000 in overtime to $45,000 in base pay in 2009,

according to county records.

Some of the biggest pensions coming out of Erie County, however, go to non-union county

employees. They don&#8217t rack up overtime in their final years on the job, but do sometimes

get higher-paying positions toward the end of their county government careers.

Sheila K. Kee, for example, the former Erie County budget director and later interim head

of Erie County Medical Center, retired in 2006 with a $99,389 public public pension based on a

final average annual salary of about $164,000. Upon retiring, Kee went to work for the state

Department of Health, collecting a $152,000 annual paycheck in addition to her pension.

In another case, Edward J. Kasprzak, also a former county budget director, retired as

deputy director of the Erie County Water Authority. He earned about $137,000 a year in his

final years on the job &#8212 resulting in his $97,530 pension, state records show.

Similarly, the biggest pensions coming out of Roswell Park go to high-paid professionals

&#8212 the doctors &#8212 not the unionized employees working overtime, records show.

One oncologist, for example, retired from Roswell in 1999 with a $125,091 pension, based on

a $295,858 salary. Another retired in 2007 with a $115,921 pension from his $239,784 Roswell

salary.

Nonetheless, much of the overtime pension padding occurring in local government is

associated with unionized employees &#8212 particularly police and firefighters &#8212 pumping

up their overtime in the final years of their career. Pensions are typically based on the

average salary in the final three years of employment.

A Buffalo News investigation conducted in 2008 and 2009 &#8212 &#8220Public Pensions:

Cashing In&#8221 &#8212 found, for example, that it&#8217s not unusual for Buffalo police and

firefighters to retire with pensions that exceed their base pay.

One officer, The News found, racked up $123,000 in overtime in his final year on the job,

bringing his paycheck in 2007 to $188,747. The officer retired with a $105,361 pension on a

job with an annual base pay of $58,243.

More recently, it was disclosed that Barbara Miller-Williams, chairwoman of the Erie County

Legislature, is getting ready to retire from her job as a Buffalo police officer.

In preparation, Miller-Williams worked more than $51,000 in overtime, boosting her total

annual pay to nearly $128,000 &#8212 double her base salary.

&#8220The norm is to work very, very hard to increase your average [salary],&#8221

Williams told The Buffalo News. &#8220I&#8217ve done nothing different than what anyone else

has done. I worked as hard as I could, but I had other responsibilities, so I couldn&#8217t

work as hard as some of my colleagues. But I did the best I could.&#8221

Such pension padding is going on throughout the state, Cuomo said.

&#8220We have found many cases where the salary in the final three years spiked

artificially, egregiously, and then increases significantly the rate of the pension,&#8221 he

said, adding: &#8220And who do you think pays? The taxpayers pay. The taxpayers always

pay.&#8221

The letter sent out to 28 agencies Thursday asks for salary and overtime information going

back eight years for all employees who retired in 2009.

The governments are asked to provide the information by April 1.

Following publication of the Buffalo News pension series, Paul J. Kolkmeyer, then head of

city&#8217s control board, called on New York State to exclude overtime from pension

calculations for all employees in the state pension system.

&#8220You have people working 25 to 30 years and making one salary for 25 to 30 years

with little overtime. Then, all of a sudden, they are retiring, and people are using overtime

to pump up their pensions . . . and their pensions are in excess of what they are

earning,&#8221 he said.

Greenan, the Erie County personnel commissioner, Thursday agreed that the state needs to

address the pension-spiking issue.

&#8220The issue of pension spiking is something that&#8217s a statewide problem,&#8221

Greenan said. &#8220It&#8217s an issue that really should be addressed to the State

Legislature and the governor. The issue is that these are unionized employees who, under their

union contracts, the most senior employees get the first bite of the [overtime] apple.&#8221