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Judge Krichbaum retires, new 6-year term begins Monday
and Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court retired effective Saturday, but he will begin a new six-year term Monday.
Judge Krichbaum, 63, also was appointed as a visiting judge this week in the interim by the Ohio Supreme Court, but he is not being paid for this week.
The judge said he decided to retire now and be rehired because of reductions in Public Employee Retirement System benefits.
“There are dramatic changes that have occurred over the last several years in PERS that have pretty much dictated that I secure the benefits that I’ve earned to date so that they’re not taken away from me, too,” he said.
If his application is approved, he said he expects to begin collecting his retirement about 60 days from now in addition to his regular $121,350 annual judicial salary.
He has been contributing to PERS for some 30 years, previously having been a bailiff and special prosecutor, so his annual PERS retirement benefit would be about $80,000.
“The spousal benefit for PERS retirees is reduced 33 percent in each of the next three years until it’s gone completely,” he noted. “My family’s financial well-being is a prime consideration” for taking the retire-rehire option.
He said he is only permitted to retire and be rehired at the beginning of a new term in office and cannot do so midterm.
“When I started this job, I gave up a thriving law practice, where I made a lot more money than I’ve ever made as a judge. I’ve never come close to catching up,” he said, noting that judicial salaries have been frozen in Ohio since January 2008.
“This doesn’t cost anybody any money. These are benefits that I’ve earned from PERS, and I’m seeking to preserve what’s left of them before any more is taken away,” he added.
“It’s a retire-rehire. Policemen do it all the time. Teachers do it all the time. There are a great number of public officials who do it,” the judge said.
“I earned my retirement, and I’m entitled to it, whether I take it now or I take it at some later date, and, if I serve as judge and perform the duties of the judge, I’m entitled to be paid for that the same as anyone else who would be elected,” Judge Krichbaum said.
“If I retired, and I’m paid the retirement that I earned, and someone else was elected to do this job, the same amount’s going to be paid to whoever it is that’s elected to do this job, and the same amount’s going to be paid to me as a retiree, so it doesn’t cost anybody anything for me to do this,” he said.
“When it’s called ‘double-dipping’ that’s a naysayer’s type of a phrase, and it’s unfortunate. It is a retire-rehire of someone who is good at what he does and enjoys what he’s doing and is willing to continue to do that,” he said.
Judge Krichbaum said he intends to complete his new term and run for another term six years from now.
A judge since 1991, Judge Krichbaum ran unopposed for re-election last year, and won his fifth six-year term as a judge. He is the county’s longest-serving judge.
Judge Krichbaum is the second judge within a year to retire from the court. Last June, Judge James C. Evans also retired. Gov. John Kasich replaced him with Judge Shirley J. Christian.