LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley is asking the Public Employees Retirement Board to stop a final payment to former Nebraska Public Employees Retirement Systems Executive Director Thomas Pfeifle, saying Pfeifle did not work during the period covered by the payments.
Foley said the board has issued two payments of $7,884.81 each to Pfeifle, on Oct. 14 and Oct. 28. A third payment of the same amount is scheduled for Nov. 10.
Payments and benefits
If the third payment is made, the three checks would total $23,654.43 in gross pay. Foley said the total cost, including vacation and sick leave and employer-paid health insurance and retirement benefits, would be $27,878.31.
Foley is also asking the board to recover the money already paid. He argues the board lacked authority to continue paying Pfeifle after he stopped working.
Resignation and auditor’s concerns
According to the Nebraska Examiner, Pfeifle submitted his resignation on Sept. 21, saying he wanted to be closer to his children in Colorado. His letter set his last day as Oct. 31, and the board approved the resignation at a Sept. 30 special meeting.
Foley said Pfeifle turned in his state cellphone, keys, laptop and identification on Sept. 21 and had no further contact of consequence with the agency. NPERS staff have said Pfeifle has not worked in the office since that date.
In a new 10-page letter to the board, Foley also raised concerns about Pfeifle’s work history and alleged that NPERS did not follow its internal policies for handling credible allegations of offensive or illegal workplace behavior.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” Foley said in a news release. “The PERB is hell-bent on lavishing tens of thousands of dollars on a spectral former administrator who, besides having an incredibly short, but evidently troubled, tenure of under four months with NPERS, was no longer working at the agency during the period for which he is being paid.”
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