Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 26, 1993 TAG: 9303260088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TOTA'S DEAL A LOT SWEETER THAN ROANOKE TEACHERS'...
In 1989, the year the Roanoke School Board last negotiated School Superintendent Frank Tota's benefits package, it offered a one-time-only, sweetened version of its early retirement program for teachers and other school employees.Then it made Tota eligible for the deal - and made it even sweeter.
Like the 51 school-system employees who cashed in that year, Tota will receive 35 percent of his annual salary - instead of the customary 20 percent - when he retires this year.
But that's where the similarity ends:
Teachers were to receive benefits for five years or until age 65, whichever came first. Tota will receive a $35,000 check for seven years.
Teachers had to have worked in Virginia for 17 years to be eligible for the deal, with at least 10 years in the city school system. Tota has 12 years of service in Virginia.
Teachers had to retire by June 1989. Tota's contract gave him the right to exercise his early-retirement option - at 1989 levels - whenever he left the system.
Tota was not restricted to receiving 35 percent of his 1989 salary, as were the teachers. His early retirement benefits will be based upon his current $100,000 salary, which is $10,000 higher than it was in 1989.
Teachers had to be at least 55 years old at the time they retired. Tota's contract allows him to retire at age 54, then begin collecting the benefits after his 55th birthday, which is Dec. 28.
Teachers must return to work for 20 days each of the five years they receive benefits. The School Board disagrees over whether Tota must work to receive his annual $35,000 check. It plans to discuss the matter in closed session April 6.
Tota's deal strays far from the intentions of board members who developed the early retirement program in the early 1980s, said George May, a board member from 1978 to 1984.
The intent of the program was to save money for the city by replacing teachers at the top of the pay scale with those at the bottom, at the same time giving teachers some money to tide them over until retirement, he said.
Tota's early retirement, however, will cost - rather than save - money because incoming Superintendent Wayne Harris will be paid just $5,000 per year less than Tota. The School Board will have to dish out an additional $30,000 per year for seven years to support both Harris and Tota.
"I never would have voted for [the deal given to Tota] to start with," May said. "What they've done for him is not proper."
"In the case of Frank Tota, it was like a healthy cell going wild and becoming cancerous," said Gary Waldo, director of Commonwealth Uniserv, the local arm of the Virginia Education Association.
Tota repeatedly has refused to comment on his early retirement package.
Board member J.M. "Jay" Turner, who was chairman when the board negotiated Tota's contract, defended Tota's retirement package as "essentially the same" as that offered to teachers that year and less lucrative than an early retirement package offered to top city administrators outside the school system.
He said the added benefits were necessary incentives to keep Tota in the job at a time when the city and county were considering consolidating school districts, a move that might have eliminated Tota's position.
Turner raised the ire of some of his fellow board members last week when he said Tota never was expected to work for his annual $35,000 "consultant's fee."
But Monday, Don Bartol, a former board member who in 1989 voted against Tota's benefit package, said it was never the board's intention to simply give Tota the money.
"This was something that was conjured up," he said. "That was never discussed, not to my knowledge."
Several board members, including Bartol, complained at the time that they were given only an hour or two to review Tota's benefit package, which also included an $11,000 tax-free annuity and a $6,000 car allowance.
Others on the board said any member who chose to do so could have participated in the negotiations.
As to why the board raised benefits from 20 percent to 35 percent for that year only, Turner said he could not recall.
"I think it was a tight budget and there were a number of teachers that were on the cusp" of retiring, he said.
The recommendation to raise the percentage came from Tota's administration, Turner added.
Former School Board member Bill White, now a city councilman, said he couldn't remember why the board offered a special deal that year, either.
But current School Board Chairman Finn Pincus said he had an idea why the percentage went up.
"Well, because those people wanted to do [Tota] a favor," he said.
"I didn't agree with [Tota's retirement deal] at the time," White said. "But I think we ought to try to reach some kind of compromise with Dr. Tota and move on."