ST. LOUIS (AP) - A newly retired St. Louis firefighters pension director collected a cash payout of more than a half million dollars at a time the city is asking voters to sign off on a $180 million bond issue for infrastructure improvements, according to a newspaper report.
Vicky Grass, 63, left her $117,000-a-year job in May with the Firemen's Retirement System of St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1LFyqRa) reported Thursday. Her $579,210 payout included a one-time payment for severance and unused sick and vacation time, and an undisclosed amount from a deferred compensation plan to which she and her employer both contributed over the years.
In addition to the payout, her monthly pension will be $4,870 for life.
"I always say that I'm the luckiest broad I know," said Grass, who worked for the pension system since 1986 and served as its director since 2000.
But Mayor Francis Slay, who long championed reforms to the pension system, said Grass' retirement cash "sounds like legalized robbery."
"This is part and parcel of the gross abuses and exorbitant salaries the pension board allowed," Slay said in a statement. "It's a clear example of one of the many reasons we so desperately needed pension reform."
In 2013, city leaders reached an agreement to curb the system's retirement package, though the changes applied only to future benefits.
Larry Arnowitz, a city alderman, said Grass' compensation package was a result of long-standing agreements.
"It's certainly not a good precedent, but you can't go back and take these things away," he said. "The system has been kind to a lot of people."
The system's funding comes from firefighter contributions and yearly interest earnings, in addition to tax money from the city. The city pays when there is a shortfall, as illustrated in 2013 when the city pumped $20 million into the system. Pension reforms have since reduced the city's liability.
In February, the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed a decision allowing the city to create a new, separate retirement system for newly hired firefighters, giving them reduced benefits.