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Campbell’s ex-police chief will likely keep his pension.
By Sarah Lehr
CAMPBELL
Experts say a former Campbell police chief will likely keep his pension, assuming he’s not convicted of a felony at a later date.
Andrew Rauzan, who was ultimately allowed to resign after originally being fired by the city, is expected to plead guilty Monday to four misdemeanor charges.
Campbell Mayor Nick Phillips fired Rauzan on Nov. 7 after Phillips said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation found evidence that Rauzan had sexually harassed a woman who had come to the police station in July 2016 because of a warrant for her arrest. The BCI has declined to release records from that investigation, citing its ongoing nature.
After Rauzan left the department, a police department employee also came forward to say that Rauzan had sexually harassed her in 2013 and 2016, according to personnel records. Rauzan denies the allegations of sexual harassment.
In January, Rauzan reached an agreement in which the city withdrew his termination and he was allowed to resign effective Nov. 7. The agreement prohibits Rauzan from suing the city about the circumstances of his suspension, termination or resignation.
More recently, Rauzan agreed to four misdemeanor counts of misuse of a law-enforcement database, as part of a bill of information filed Aug. 8 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Rauzan has a hearing Monday before Judge Lou D’Apolito on the charges, which pertain to Rauzan’s purported use of the database for personal reasons.
Damian Billak, Rauzan’s attorney, said his client plans to plead guilty Monday. Billak said he could not say whether the plea deal would be an indication that prosecutors will refrain from filing additional charges later.
There are many reasons why a defendant would want to avoid a felony. In Rauzan’s case, the fate of his pension could be among those reasons.
In Ohio, public employees can lose a portion of their government pensions if they are convicted of a felony that explicitly involves misuse of a public office.
It is rare for public employees in Ohio to forfeit their pensions, according to the Ohio Retirement Study Council, an advisory body to the state Legislature. Ohio law narrowly defines the circumstances that lead to pension forfeiture.
If prosecutors wish to go after an ex-employee’s pension, they typically will zero in on one of the specific statutes that apply, such as bribery, theft in office or engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Even if a public employee is convicted of one of those offenses, the entirety of their pension cannot be forfeited.
The federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act protects the portion of a pension furnished by an employee’s yearly contributions, according to the Study Council.
In Ohio, police officers currently contribute 12.25 percent of their annual gross pensionable salaries and their employers contribute 19.5 percent.
Jill Del Greco, an Ohio attorney general spokeswoman, said she could not comment on whether Rauzan’s pension was a factor during negotiations between the prosecution and the defense.
Paul Gains, Mahoning County prosecutor, and Billak also said they could not comment on those specifics.
Though the allegations of sexual harassment initially prompted the BCI, a division of the attorney general’s office, to investigate Rauzan, Del Greco would not comment on whether Rauzan’s purported misuse of a law-enforcement database related directly to the accusations of sexual harassment. She did say that the misuse came to light during the course of the original investigation.
The Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund, citing an exemption under Ohio Public Records law, does not release pension amounts contributed by or awarded to specific employees.
State legislators passed laws to exempt such records from public view during the 1960s and ’70s – the time period when the state expanded government pension benefits.
The salaries of public employees are public record, however, as is the formula for calculating pension based on salary and other factors. The average annual police pension is $45,719, according to 2016 data from OP&F.
At the time of his termination, Rauzan was earning $62,000 annually, not including overtime.
He first became a full-time police officer in 1998 and was sworn in as chief in 2013, according to Vindicator files.
The OP&F allows police officers who started their jobs before 2013 to begin collecting normal pension benefits at age 48 and after 25 years of service. Because Rauzan, now 43, had between 15 and 25 years of service, he might be eligible for something called service commuted retirement at age 49.
David Graham, an OP&F spokesman, said the OP&F does not distinguish between police officers who were fired and those who resigned. For an officer to lose his or her pension, misconduct in office would have to rise to the criminal level.
Specifically, it would need to be a felony conviction that relates to misuse of public office.