'We're kind of at a loss': County testifies on Vanderburgh sheriff pension issues

EVANSVILLE — Vanderburgh County Council President Jill Hahn expressed confusion to Indiana's state Pension Management Oversight Committee Monday in Indianapolis over what the county's responsibility of the board is in funding the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office pension.

"We are kind of confused what our responsibility truly is," she said. "This has apparently been going on since 2019, and we were wondering at what point was the red flag going to be waved to us as council members to say, 'Hey this is an issue, this is a problem.'"

Vanderburgh County is currently on a state watch list due to its lack of funding to the sheriff's office pension plan , a retirement income source for 131 former deputies, and a program that 119 active deputies are paying 6% of their salary into.

Hahn said issues with the pension plan were only brought to the Vanderburgh County Council's attention within the last several months, and it was a surprise to all members how much money the pension plan was down. They have since hired an actuary of their own to double check the plan.

It was earlier this month that the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Pension Board actuary, along with Sheriff Noah Robinson, presented the issues fully to council, along with a few plans for remediation. Those plans were presented to the Pension Management Oversight Committee on Monday, as required by a recently enacted state law.

"We're kind of at a loss," Hahn said. "The past several years we have done good faith by giving our sheriffs (deputies) increase in wages, and had we had that crystal ball knowing this matter would come before us we probably would have changed some of our direction as far as allocating more funds to pension and possibly less in salaries."

In 2023, the county approved a contract that included sheriff's deputies seeing 33% raise in their salaries over a four-year window.

Hahn said the council isn't pointing fingers at anyone, but that the legislators sitting on the pension committee know there is only so much money to go around.

"We don't want to have this as a burden to our taxpayers either," Hahn said. "But 2019 has been quite a long period of time, and I think we wish this would have been better communicated to us in some manner."

According to a member of staff for the Indiana Public Retirement System, up until this year there had been no requirement for them to notify local jurisdictions that they are on the watchlist.

With the change of law in 2024, local jurisdictions will now be notified by June 15 of each year.

Robinson will appear in front of the county council during the body's Oct. 2 meeting to discuss additional remediation plans.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: 'We're kind of at a loss': County testifies on Vanderburgh sheriff pension issues