Bice: Acting Sheriff Schmidt could take a lump-sum, backdrop payment of more than $810,000
Acting Milwaukee County Sheriff Richard Schmidt was pummeled at the polls last week in his bid for a full term.
But this should comfort the veteran lawman:
According to newly released records, Schmidt was told last year that he would have been eligible for an $810,187 lump-sum, backdrop payment had he retired in April 2017. The highly controversial backdrop payments serve as bonuses for long-serving Milwaukee County workers.
Along with the lump-sum check, Schmidt could have gotten a regular monthly pension of nearly $73,000 a year, according to the county estimate. He has worked for the Sheriff's Office for 32 years.
His actual retirement benefits should be even higher now that Schmidt is aiming to put in another 20 months on the job since those estimates were issued. He announced earlier this week that he will step down in January when Earnell Lucas takes office.
Tim Coyne, director of Milwaukee County's retirement plan services, said he can't provide a more precise estimate of Schmidt's retirement benefits. He said the figures provided the Journal Sentinel were a "reasonable approximation" of the acting sheriff's pension.
"We can't really confirm what the actual figure will be until we have completed our calculations and the pension benefit has been finalized as the result of a member filing for retirement," Coyne said.
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Coyne said his office didn't release the correspondence between Schmidt and county pension officials until after the election because it was busy working on a more extensive open records request made by the newspaper.
The pension office is overseen by County Executive Chris Abele, who spent $300,000 of his own money in support of Schmidt's election bid. Abele has also been a sharp critic of backdrops, calling them an "anchor" on the county budget.
Despite Abele's heavy spending, Lucas, a Major League Baseball security executive, won a decisive victory Tuesday, receiving 57 percent of the vote to 34 percent for Schmidt, after labeling the acting sheriff as a holdover from the controversial and troubled administration of former Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.
Schmidt declined to say whether he would seek a backdrop check when he steps down. "Not a clue," he said by email. He also said he has no idea what his maximum lump-sum payment would be in January since it doesn't appear that's he's asked for updated numbers yet.
The highly controversial backdrop program, initially pitched as costing little or nothing, pays out bonuses to county workers who agree to work past their retirement date. In exchange for taking the upfront payment, retirees see a reduction in their monthly retirement checks. Those hired by the county before 1982 also get a 25% boost in their pension benefits.
The public furor over the lucrative benefits, approved more than 15 years ago, led to the ouster of then-County Executive F. Thomas Ament and seven county supervisors and to the criminal conviction of the architect of the program. The program has paid out more than $300 million to some 2,400 retirees.
In speeches, Schmidt has said he was looking to retire in late 2017. But Clarke then stepped down in August, putting Schmidt's retirement plans on the back burner.
Asked back in mid-June about the amount of his possible backdrop and his past correspondence with county pension officials, Schmidt demurred.
"Retirement is the last thing on my mind," Schmidt said. "I have no intentions of retiring!"
Records provided by county pension officials show Schmidt did ask three months ago how his benefits would be affected if he were elected sheriff. In response, he was told the multipliers used in calculating his retirement would not change and that he still could receive a backdrop.
Schmidt said there was nothing inconsistent about his public remarks and his request to the pension office.
"As I recall, nothing changed in my benefits if I became sheriff, and that's pretty simple," Schmidt said.
Under the estimates from county pension officials in early 2017, Schmidt was eligible for a backdrop payment ranging from $760,000 to $810,000, depending on the survivor's benefit and monthly retirement checks he chose.
He could have also chosen not to take any lump-sum check, thereby boosting how much he got paid annually under its regular retirement plan to as much as $112,000 a year. That would top the pension payout to Clarke, who is receiving about $100,000 a year from the city and county.
While his backdrop may well be significant, it is still well behind the largest ones paid out by the county.
So far, 10 county retirees have cashed in backdrop checks exceeding $1 million, with six of those coming from the Milwaukee County district attorney's office.
In November, Senior Assistant District Attorney Gale Shelton received a lump-sum payment of $1.5 million, the largest backdrop so far. Shelton retired after 35 years with the county. She was paid $125,000 in 2016, her last full year in the DA's office.
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.