How Ament Prevented Any Research of the Pension Plan
Posted January 16, 2002
Over and over the question has recurred: why would county supervisors, most
of whom will not get the more lucrative pension payoff for veteran workers,
approve this deal? The problem, it appears, is that the board's research
staff was loyal to County Executive F. Thomas Ament.
"It's a joke, "says Supervisor Roger Quindel. "You have a compromised
research staff."
"They're supposed to working for us. They're supposed to be helping us make
decisions."
"We have some staff members who are wonderful," Supervisor Lynn DeBruin
says, "but we also have had some staff where I was concerned what
information was getting back to Tom Ament."
County Board chair Karen Ordinans was particularly concerned about Tom
Kuzma, who served as head of the county board research staff when the
pension plan was passed. "It's very well known that Kuzma was good friends
with Gary Dobbert and Bob Ott," she says. Dobbert, director of Human
Resources and chief architect of the plan, and Ott,
the county corporation counsel who's been accused of lobbying for the plan
by supervisors, were just asked to resign by Ament.
Kuzma, as our last story revealed, was also one of the "buddies" of Dobbert
who got extra pension benefits because of a deal Dobbert passed in 1999 that
gave service credit for pension payments to county employees who once worked
for CETA.
Ordinans said she decided to replace Kuzma because of his connection to
Ament, and her fear that she was not getting truly independent research from
her staff. She dumped him in August 2001, nearly a year after the new
pension plan was passed, and garnered criticism (in a stinging story by the
Milwaukee Journal's Spivak and Bice) because Kuzma had cancer. "I had wanted
to make a change earlier but because he had cancer I had held off," Ordinans
says.
Kuzma was immediately given a job with the Ament administration, as a
special assistant in the Department of Administration.
Kuzma denies that he was compromised by his loyalty to Ament. "She must be
getting real desperate because that was never brought up to me," he says of
Ordinans. But he doesn't deny his friendship with Dobbert and Ott. "After
you work in the courthouse for 30 years you do become friendly with people."
Kuzma, in fact, concedes a problem with Ordinans: "She never trusted me or
any of the older staff there. We did not even provide a report analyzing
[the pension plan]."
The county board has a staff of six research analysts who are supposed to
provide an independent look at any laws proposed by the county executive. In
the case of the pension plan, Robert Murphy was assigned by Kuzma to staff
the personnel committee and provide research.
Both Kuzma and Murphy were hired prior to 1982, which means they are
eligible for the generous 25 percent increase in pension benefits as well as
the lucrative backdrop provision that rewards veteran employees. Murphy,
however, denies that this influenced his recommendation in favor of the
pension plan: "I didn't run numbers on myself. In my head I took a
guesstimate of what it would be."
In an interview last fall, Murphy defended the pension provision as a way to
retain long-term employees. "The county has some very talented people and
the private sector often wants them." Murphy, however, offered no examples
of such talent raids. He also defended the pension because "working in
government is very demanding, because you're always in the public eye." We
shall pass over the many ironies of this observation.
"Bob Murphy clearly thought it was a wonderful package," says DeBruin, the
board's chair of finance, who voted against the pension plan. DeBruin says
she had suspicions about the plan, "but I felt I really didn't have someone
who sympathized with my opinions. If he's already sold on the package, it's
hard to get independent research."
Kuzma denies that DeBruin or Ordinans brought up any questions. "We weren't
asked to look at any of that."
"They didn't ask us to run figures on individual employees," says Murphy.
"It's not our job to start looking at individual employees and what would
happen unless we're asked to do that."
But Quindel says he asked Murphy for a verbal report after my October story
reported on Ament's $2 million pension pay out. "Murphy said there was
nothing wrong with [the pension plan]," Quindel recalls. "I felt he was
advocating for it. Murphy lobbies for [policy] positions all the time
instead of doing research."
As a county researcher, Kuzma worked for Ament from 1976-1992, during the 16
years Ament was board chairman. Murphy, who switched from a different county
department to the board research staff in 1987, worked under Ament for five
years.
Since becoming board chair in 1996, Ordinans has overseen the research
staff. "She said she wanted me to report to her only," Kuzma reveals. "I
said I believe I work for all 25 supervisors, not just for her."
But as Quindel puts it, "if you're not working for the board majority when
there's a dispute with the executive, then you're obviously working for
Ament."
In interviews last November, many supervisors said that during Ordinans'
tenure as board chair, Ament has had more power over the board than
Ordinans. "The rest of the board members know they have to work with Ament
to get anything done," said supervisor LeeAnn Launstein.
"It's easy for Ament to pick off a coalition [of board members] on various
issues," said Ald. Terrence Herron, a former county board member. "I've
never seen Tom want something and not get it."
"He's our benevolent dictator," said Supervisor Robert Krug. "Ament gets
about 95 percent of what he wants."
Kuzma says Ordinans could have gone to another county research analyst if
she was dissatisfied with Murphy. "She went to [analyst] Rob Henken for
everything. If they're saying we're not loyal, she had a loyal one, why
didn't she go to him?"
AMENT BLAMES THE MESSENGER
All the king's men and women were lined up behind Tom Ament as he did his
dramatic news conference announcing his decision to ask for the resignation
of the three henchmen, including Ott, Dobbert and labor relations director
Henry Zielinski. Ament had every department head and cabinet member standing
behind him, as he read his speech. Once finished, he bolted for the door,
after telling the press he wouldn't take any questions for several days.
Some oddball citizen handing out Ament dunce caps yelled to the county
executive "here's your dunce cap!" The look he got from Ament as the county
exec walked out the door was a memorable amalgam of alarm, disgust and
downright amazement. These are not good days for Tom Ament.
And it turns out it's all the media's fault. We had the wrong figures
because we didn't know the pension payouts were so high that the Internal
Revenue Service wouldn't allow it. "There is no lump sum backdrop payment
for me and there never was," Ament declared. Well, actually, Tom, the
figures from the actuary quoted in the Journal Sentinel suggest the county
exec can still collect $2.3 million, if he foregoes the additional monthly
pension. And by the way, Ament will also get paid up health insurance for
life.
But Ament insisted we were all wrong, and could have gotten the true story
had we simply checked with the county pension office.
Hm. It was back in September that I called Jac Amerell, the secretary to the
Pension Board and the man who computes the county's pensions. I had already
gotten the particulars from other sources, but I spent several hours and a
couple phone calls verifying the details of the backdrop. After computing
Ament's pension, I sent Amerell my numbers and he said it looked right to
him.
My October 10 story included a click-on page where I went through my math,
and how Ament's $2 million pension was figured. Soon copies of the story were
floating around the courthouse. But Ament never called me to explain what
was wrong.
In November, while working on a follow-up story for Milwaukee Magazine, I
called Ament's chief of staff Tom Mollan and told him about this story and
asked if he had any corrections. Nope, he said. I interviewed Ament and he
offered no counter statistic on his pension, instead asking, "what's the
headline on this story going to say, Ament gets millions?"
By this time, the county board had launched an investigation, in response to
my website story. Ament offered the board no other estimate of his salary.
Then, in mid-December, my Milwaukee Magazine story reported his pension, as
well as that of County Supervisor Tom Bailey. As had been done previously,
the Milwaukee Magazine website offered my math, and Ament and Mollan never
called to offer any correction.
In December, Journal Sentinel reporters began working on the story and Ament
did not alert them that I had made an error. On January 6, the newspaper did
its first story, estimating his backdrop payout at $2.3 million. Ament
offered no correction until January 15, more than three months after the
story was first reported.
Here's the most delicious irony. The revelation that the IRS might limit
Ament's booty probably came not from the county pension officials, but from
the Journal Sentinel's Avrum Lank, who began calling Ament about this
because of Lank's knowledge of IRS law. The newspaper, in the course of
doing admirable research, provided a fig leaf for Ament. A very small fig
leaf.
Finally, for those math majors, why did Lank and the Journal Sentinel
originally come up with $2.3 million, compared to my $2.04 million. I used a compound
interest rate of 8.5 percent, and did not adjust it to 9 percent (which
occurs in 2002). To be safe, I felt it was better to underestimate. Lank,
according to what Ament told me, used a 9 percent multiplier all the way,
when he should have used 8.5 percent for the years 1995-2001. Either way,
it's an awful lot of money.
SHORT TAKE
Ament's axings left out his chief of staff, Tom Mollan, another member of
the millionaire club. Of course, if Mollan, Ament's closest advisor, knew
the details of the pension plan, it stands to reason that his boss did as
well. Mollan can't be fired without the finger pointing directly at Ament.
Did Mollan know? "Mollan's always behind the dirty stuff," says one
supervisor. "Always. My guess is that he put the big pension numbers up in
front of everyone."
