$258K retirement payout called into question in Plecas report

Of the many scandalous allegations outlined in the Plecasreport, perhapsthe mostcostly concernsa lump sum retirement allowanceof $257,988.38 paid out toClerk of the House Craig James in 2012 thatwas based on a retirement scheme terminated 25 years earlier.

According to Plecas, thepayment was made possible by a 2012memorandum to James signed by then-Speaker of the House BillBarisoffin whichBarisoffpurported to end a retirement allowance program that had already ended in 1987.

The memorandum triggered a calculation of outstandingliabilities and James received over a quarter of a million dollars, the report says.

Both James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz were suspended from the Legislative Assembly on Nov. 20. The two men have denied any wrongdoing and callthe allegations in the Plecas Report "completely false and untrue."

In the report, Plecashas many concerns about the retirement allowance:

• James was first hired at the legislature in February of 1987 as clerk of committees, two months before the retirement allowance program ended.
• As clerk of committees he was noteligible for the retirement allowance, nor was it ever mentioned in his terms of employment.
• A few months after James was hired in 1987, anew benefits and retirement scheme was introduced which James participated in.That would make the lump sum paymentretirement double dipping.
• The lump sum payment was calculated using James's 2011 clerk of the house salary andnot salaries he had in lesser paying jobs in the preceding years.
• Although the retirement allowance was intended to be payable on retirement. aBarisoffmemorandum to James in Feb. 2012 said that was not the case.
• Documentation suggests James tried to prevent having the lump sum payment publicly disclosed.
• The lump sum payment was addressed in anonymous terms in a 2013Auditor General Report as "unusual compensation arrangements."
• A follow-up report conducted bythe legislative assembly's then-director of human resources, Jo-Anne Kern,flagged that James's lump sum payment was based on extremely generous interpretations of the pastscheme andshould have been supported by formal documentation. It also brought intoquestion the role of Barisoff.
• The Kern report was either not filed by then-Speaker of the House Linda Reidor it was removed from the Legislative Assembly's records. It is also missing from the Speaker's vault. Plecas wrote that he wasable to obtain the reportfrom a former employee who kept a copy "anticipating that its existence might one day be disputed."

In summary,Plecas writes the paymentto James was of "questionable authority and it ought to be investigated properly with consideration given as to whether it was authorized."