Show me the money

Seems like this is the week for Sheriffs to be in the news. First Charlie Porous Pockets, then Harveycarbanger, and now Ken “show me the money” Jenne. The disgraced ex-Broward Sheriff made headlines this week when a Tallahassee judge denied his request to receive his state pension. The administrative law judge cited Florida law, which allows the FRS to suspend pension payments to a retiree convicted of a felony. This should make Senator Mike Fasano (R, New Port Richey) happy since he is proposing radical changes to the current Florida Retirement System (FRS) (see Senate Bill S534).


Let me start my comments by saying that I am not a Jenne fan. He committed several crimes while in office and spent nearly a year in federal prison. Neither am I a Fasano fan, at least as it applies to his views on the Florida Retirement System. So when I say the state has no business regulating Mr. Jenne’s pension, it’s because I believe the government shouldn’t be in the pension business and not because I’m a Jenne supporter. I don’t even know the man. Fasano, though, wants us to believe the money that accrued in Jenne’s state pension fund is not Jenne’s money. His ideas about the DROP Program and “double-dippers,” as he calls them, are way out of orbit. Fasano likes to think that FRS money still belongs to the state and that the state should maintain control of those funds. By denying Jenne’s request, the judge agreed. And therein lies the problem.

Let’s be perfectly clear--the money in the FRS pension fund is Jenne’s money. If it wasn’t, the Legislature would have swept the FRS just like they raided every other state agency trust fund in their attempt to balance the budget deficit. The only reason they didn’t do this is the obvious…the funds in the FRS do not belong to the state. And the state should not be in the retirement fund business. They can’t manage the rest of the state’s money so why would you want them managing your retirement portfolio?


So Jenne should get his pension money. There…I said it. Call me crazy, but this is not about Jenne. It’s about every FRS employee’s right to their money. Jenne should get his money because it’s his money. He worked for it. It was contributed on his behalf. And he owns it. The only problem is that it’s sitting in someone else’s bank and he doesn’t have the key.


The judge in this case ruled in favor of the law as it’s written. Senator Fasano and his peers have the ability and the obligation to correct bad law. We hope Fasano can set aside his personal feelings and biases and do what is right rather than what he believes is politically correct.