Q&A – What Florida’s DOGE Auditors Will Be Digging into in PBC
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station page in the iHeart app.
Today’s entry: Submitted via talkback: Hey Brian, hey Joel, great show. Love you guys. Hey, my question is this, when they're dojing PBC, are they going to look at the practice of retire, rehire, uh, for purposes of accessing public pensions? I think this is one of the things that, you know, we need to look at and see if this is a practice that's been going on and encouraged. Thank you very much.
Bottom Line: It’s a great next level question as Palm Beach County’s DOGE audit is set to begin today. The last time there was much discussion of double-or even triple dipping government pensions occurred in 2019 surrounding former Broward Supervisor of Elections – Brenda Snipes and just prior to that development, former BSO Deputy Scot Peterson – both who’d engaged in the practice, and both who achieved a high level of public scrutiny over their job performance. There have been multiple related pension law reforms in Florida over the previous 16 years – so about that...
Double-dipping government pensions in Florida, where a public employee collects both a pension and a salary from the same or another government job, has been significantly restricted but is still possible under specific conditions due to changes in state law.
Related to the changes in pension policy... One of the reforms raised the vesting length of time for pension eligibility within the state to eight years from six years. Related to the practice of double dipping...
In 2009, the state passed a law to curb double-dipping. The key change was extending the mandatory waiting period before a retiree could return to a government job while collecting a pension:
- Pre-July 1, 2010: Employees could retire, take a 30-day break, and return to work while collecting both a pension and a salary. This led to widespread double-dipping, with 9,669 employees doing so by summer 2010.
- Post-July 1, 2010: Retirees must wait six months after retirement before returning to a Florida Retirement System covered position. During this period, they cannot earn a salary from an FRS employer, and their pension payments are suspended if they return earlier. This makes double-dipping less practical, as employers are less likely to hold positions open for six months.
So, it is still possible for legal double-dipping to take place. What’s illegal is if multiple pensions are accrued during the same service time (so a person can’t work for multiple FRS employers at the same time and accrue a pension with both). I’d imagine today’s question is hitting at that dynamic and whether DOGE might uncover potential employees who may be covertly doing this within Palm Beach County. Here is what Florida’s DOGE team is specifically digging into during the PBC audit:
- The way large contracts have been procured
- Compensation levels for county employees – with specific additional requests for all making over $200k per year
- The Department of Young Services
- The Office of Resilience
- The Office of Community Revitalization
- The Office of Community Services
- DEI related positions and policies
- “Green New Deal” adopted policies
- The issuance of grants
- Administration of transportation
- Homeless Services
With the second stated focus of the DOGE team involving compensation – one would imagine that unlawful double-dipping practices (if any exist) would be something that would be in focus. Notably, just over a week ago in Nassau County – six deputies were fired and five were arrested for double-dipping practices. I’m not currently aware of credible allegations of improper double-dipping activity locally, but obviously Palm Beach County is a large county with lots of employees and therefore potential opportunity.
Florida’s CFO Blaise Ingoglia has indicated that DOGE reports will be filed approximately 60 days after the conclusion of an audit, so we’ll likely be waiting to see what is found generally. More to come...