The Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund Board of Trustees ruled on April 7 to modify the teacher retirement package of former Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto (D-Secaucus), from $4,627 to $3,366 per month.
That’s more than $15,000 per year.
Impreveduto entered a plea in November 2004 to charges of misusing $50,000 of campaign funds over a five-year period on personal expenses.
The next day, he resigned from posts at the legislature and school system. He had served as director of the Business Department at Secaucus High School for 33 years.
The 17-year Assembly veteran retired Jan. 17, 2005. He was allowed to continue to teach until his school resignation took effect. At the time of retirement, he was awarded his full pension, but after the Jan. 24 sentencing, the pension board reconsidered their decision.
Tom Vincz, spokesperson for the Department of Treasury, said six members of the seven-member Board of Trustees voted unanimously to reduce the teacher’s pension based on Impreveduto’s misconduct as an assemblyman. Vincz said anyone who retires from the public service system must submit their paperwork to be approved by the Board of Trustees for each particular system. Impreveduto has credit in two different systems – teachers as well as public employee. “When the review comes up, the board looks at complaints from the prosecution and law enforcement,” says Vincz. “They also review at reports in the media.”
Circumstances for retirement
The board puts each candidate for retirement through an 11-point test. These are standards set by the state of New Jersey. The evaluation looks at the member’s length of service, the basis for retirement, duties while teaching and other points related to service.
The board also looks at the circumstances for retirement, which in Impreveduto’s case was cause for reduction. The nature of misconduct or crime determines the amount of forfeiture. This includes the gravity of the offense, whether it was a single offense or multiple offenses, and whether it was continuing or an isolated event.
There is also a point that considers “the quality of moral turpitude.” The degree of guilt or culpability plus the employee’s motives and reasons, personal gain, and similar consideration are under inspection.
William Soukas, Impreveduto’s lawyer from the New Jersey Association of School Attorney, says the recent ruling was inappropriate since it involved his job as assemblyman, “not his excellent decades in the Secaucus School system.”
He said Impreveduto should not have been penalized since he had an unblemished record as a teacher and an administrator.
“This case is really about 33 years of unblemished service to educating kids,” says Soukas. “I did my best to make the board aware of that.”
Bad ethics
But the moral turpitude point may have cost the erstwhile business teacher a chunk of change. Impreveduto was the former chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ethical Standards, which may not have set well with his position as a role model to the youths he served.
Besides the pension reduction, Impreveduto received five years probation. He must repay the misspent $50,000 and liquidate the $322,000 in his campaign funds along with the loss of the Assembly seat.
“This is a very unfortunate situation,” said school board president William Millevoi. “But if you’re going to break the law, you have to accept the consequences.”
While the Board of Trustees did not wish to comment on the case, Vincz says the ruling is final unless Impreveduto plans to appeal.
“It may or not be over, depending on if we go for an appeal ruling. I think he has paid his debt to society,” said Soukas. “The ruling on the pension is disappointing, but it could have been worse.”
Impreveduto is not eligible for his public service pension for another three years.
The 57-year-old ex-assemblyman can earn $25,000 per year for the 17 years he served in the state Legislature.