AUGUSTA – Public employees who violate the public’s trust by committing crimes on the job could lose their state pensions under legislation proposed Thursday.

Rep. Les Fossel, R-Alna, submitted the bill in response to the case of Paul Violette, who is facing jail time for theft of public funds during his tenure as executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority.

Violette, who resigned last year and pleaded guilty last week, could go to prison for as long as five years, but he will keep his $5,289-a-month state pension because Maine has no forfeiture law.

Violette, 56, is scheduled to be sentenced April 6 in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court in Portland.

Fossel’s proposal would not affect Violette — it can’t be retroactive — but it could prove costly for any public official who commits a similar crime in the future.

Fossel’s bill, L.R. 2745, would put Maine in line with more than 15 other states, which have pension forfeiture laws that enable or require courts to cut off pensions in certain cases.

Advertisement

“Violation of the public trust is a serious offense,” Fossel said in a written statement. Fossel is a member of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, which investigated the allegations against Violette last year.

The bill addresses crimes rated as Class C or greater, which bring prison sentences of at least five years, Fossel said. Any public employee found guilty of a job-related crime could lose his or her pension. The court would decide on a case-by-case basis whether to impose that penalty.

Money that a person has contributed to the state retirement system would not be subject to the forfeiture law.

Fossel’s proposal also would require employees who are convicted of theft to make restitution. Violette has paid restitution totaling $155,000.

Fossel said Violette did some good things as a state official over the years, but he also did some bad things and is getting punished.

“The purpose of this bill is to say, going forward, if this happens again and someone doesn’t want to give up their pension to pay restitution,” the court could take away the pension, he said. “It’s a deterrent.”

Advertisement

Several Republicans have already signed on as co-sponsors. Some had been working on similar bills in the wake of the Violette case, Fossel said.

He said he expects support from Democrats as well, in part because he made sure the bill left discretion to the courts. Mandatory pension forfeiture laws have been controversial in some states because less serious violations carry the same financial penalties as the most serious ones.

“I like the idea that the court has options,” said Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, another member of the Government Oversight Committee.

Diamond, a former secretary of state, had yet to review the bill Thursday, but said the concept makes sense.

“I think it’s a good direction to go in,” he said. “It … makes a statement that we hold that trust in high regard.”

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 620-7016 or at:

jrichardson@mainetoday.com

 


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.