House Speaker William Murphy, Senate President Joseph Montalbano and Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams all express concern with the $120,310-a-year pension for Marjorie R. Yashar.

07:36 PM EST on Thursday, March 30, 2006

BY SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- House Speaker William J. Murphy is ordering a special hearing to investigate former Traffic Tribunal Judge Marjorie R. Yashar's pension. Specifically, he will ask his Finance Committee to determine whether court officials acted properly when they gave Yashar credit for eight months of unpaid leave.

Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano also raised concerns about the $120,310-a-year pension yesterday, saying his legal staff will look into possible steps to reduce Yashar's pension.

"To receive a pension for days that you didn't work, I don't think is proper nor is it beneficial to the taxpayers of the state of Rhode Island," said Murphy, D-West Warwick.

The lawmakers' comments came shortly after court officials unveiled proposed legislation which they say will prevent a situation like this from ever happening again.

For Montalbano, D-North Providence, that isn't enough.

He said that any legislation prohibiting pension credit for time on leave should also "apply to the Yashar situation and not just be a prospective thing."

The two lawmakers also said they are not convinced that the law needs to be changed, saying the courts might have failed to correctly apply it.

On Sunday, The Journal reported that Yashar was given credit for her time on leave, pushing her annual pension from $81,650 to $120,310.

Yashar's pension is the 17th highest in the state, according to the state retirement system, and comes with a 3-percent annual cost-of-living increase.

Governor Carcieri and Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty both criticized the pension Monday.

Yesterday, Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams added his name to the growing list of people upset.

Through his spokesman, Williams said he was "not happy" about the pension approved by those serving under him.

"It stinks in the nostrils of the people of Rhode Island," Williams said, paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln.

Spokesman Craig N. Berke said the chief justice believes that the extra money Yashar will receive every year for the rest of her life "is unsettling."

The additional money -- $38,660 a year plus the cost of living increases -- that Yashar will now receive for the rest of her life is worth $1,009,678 over the next 20 years, Journal calculations show.

However, State Court Administrator J. Joseph Baxter Jr. maintained in a statement yesterday that he and other court officials had no option but to grant Yashar the full pension.

"We had no choice under existing law but to take the ministerial act of passing her retirement paperwork on to the state retirement system," Baxter said.

The judiciary is pushing for the legislation to ensure there is never a future "misunderstanding or attempt to take credit for unpaid leave" Baxter said.

The measure -- which does not yet have a sponsor -- would prohibit any judge or magistrate from counting unpaid time toward their pension. It would not affect Yashar, just other judges moving forward.

The courts yesterday also granted a public records request by The Journal for documents related to Yashar's pension.

The documents show that in June, Yashar first inquired about how much longer she would have to remain on the job to qualify for a full pension.

Yashar was once an outspoken critic of the state traffic court, but her final months on and off the bench were turbulent. The troubles began on Jan. 31, 2005, when she was charged with domestic simple assault, a charge later dropped.

On Feb. 7, her lawyer wrote to Traffic Tribunal Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio, saying that Yashar's psychiatrist had recommended that she take a medical leave of absence. DeRobbio granted Yashar "leave without pay," retroactive to Feb. 1.

In June, Yashar began coming to work again, but DeRobbio refused to give her any cases or put her back on the payroll. This is when she first started asking about her pension.

Yashar started as a judge on July 10, 1985. In order to collect a pension equal to 100 percent of her salary, Yashar needed to be on the bench for 20 years.

When she went out on leave in February of 2005, she was just shy of those 20 years. Her pension would have instead been only 75 percent of her then $108,867-a-year salary. Because of raises and longevity payments, when she finally retired in September, her salary had grown to $120,310.

Yashar's retirement came after negotiations between her lawyer and a lawyer for DeRobbio, the Traffic Tribunal's chief judge. DeRobbio's lawyer and Berke said there was no written agreement.

The parties publicly said that as part of the agreement, DeRobbio would let Yashar return to work for one day, putting her back on active status and allowing her to collect a pension.

Her departure also cleared the way for DeRobbio to appoint somebody to fill her spot.

DeRobbio said the agreement did not deal with the amount of credit Yashar would get for her pension. He did, however, insist that Yashar forfeit any pay for the time out and not start collecting a pension until Dec. 30, 2005.

Court officials pointed out yesterday that DeRobbio's actions saved taxpayers $104,000.

smayerow@projo.com / (401) 277-7513