By Darren DaRonco
The Arizona Daily Star
TUCSON, Ariz. — A former Tucson Fire paramedic who retired after his indictment on suspicion of work-shift fraud counts will receive his pension check, a review board has decided.
Herbert Oxnam will continue to get his $5,019 monthly retirement check, but Tucson’s public safety pension board said it would seek to revoke it if he’s convicted.
“State statute allows a local board to get a court order for a member who’s defrauded the system to forfeit their pension except for the portion they personally contributed,” said David McEvoy, the attorney for the city’s Tucson Police and Fire Public Safety Personnel Retirement System Board. “But only after there’s a conviction or a plea of no contest.”
If the city does pull his pension, Oxnam would receive a lump sum payment of what he contributed over his career, roughly $200,000, minus what the city paid him prior to the conviction.
The official court action to pull his pension would have to be initiated by the state pension board which controls the plan, McEvoy said.
Last month, the Arizona Attorney’s General Office indicted Oxnam on four felony counts alleging work-shift fraud. A Tucson Police Department investigation showed Oxnam double-billed the city to spike his pension and earn a little extra money through overtime, reports said.?Oxnam paid fellow firefighters up to $200 to call in sick when he was next in line on TFD’s overtime list, the indictment said.
The scheme cost the city twice the money for the same shift: paying one employee sick leave and overtime to Oxnam to cover the “sick” employee’s shift, court records showed.
Because Oxnam, a 19-year veteran, was near retirement and the final three years of income are used to calculate monthly pension benefits, the overtime dollars would boost his monthly retirement check, court records said.
Pension spiking by working overtime isn’t illegal. But Oxnam engaged in fraud by paying others to call in sick, court records said.
Oxnam was paid $31,689 in overtime pay in 2013. His final salary for that year was $109,935.
The investigation also revealed widespread “irregularities” on how Tucson Fire conducted and documented shift trades and other types of leave.
The City Manager’s Office is conducting an internal investigation into those issues.
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©2015 The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Ariz.)