JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Pay and pension have been a key question since Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams announced he was stepping down after violating the city charter.
The money and benefits he received while living in Nassau County for 14 months have dominated comments on social media, with many opining that he doesn’t deserve them, since the office was officially vacant.
City General Counsel Jason Teal has already determined Williams earned his $180,000-plus annual salary, because he was serving as “the de facto sheriff.”
But Teal’s opinion doesn’t cover his state pension.
First Coast News has confirmed that the Florida Retirement System requires a minimum of eight years of employment to receive a pension. When Mike Williams leaves office Friday, he will have just under seven.
According to the Florida Department of Management Services, “Sheriff Williams is a Pension Plan member who was initially enrolled after June 30, 2011.” The FRS Member Handbook says employees enrolled in the FRS on or after July 1, 2011, “will be vested in the Pension Plan after eight years of creditable service.”
“Being vested means that you have met the service requirements to be eligible to receive a future FRS retirement benefit,” the handbook says. “If you terminate before you have vested, you are not eligible to retire.”
But Williams has options, including getting another job covered by FRS. That could be anything from teaching law enforcement classes at a state school to becoming sheriff of Nassau County. “The service credit you earned is not lost and will be combined with any future creditable service in the event you return to covered employment and resume active membership,” the handbook says.
Alternatively, he could transfer his pension contributions into the state “investment” plan, similar to a 401(k), which does not require vesting.
Or he could get a refund.
"It would be outside the purview of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to comment on a State Pension," read the response from JSO when asked for comment.
An Attorney General opinion in 2003 determined that the Jacksonville Sheriff was eligible to participate in the Florida Retirement System's Elected Officers' Class unless they were participating in the city pension. The sheriff left the city pension system when he retired from JSO to run for sheriff.
His current city pension for his 23 years of service is about $90,000 dollars a year.
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