CHILDERS: COMMISSIONERS NEED TO PAY MONEY RECEIVED UNDER 401(a) BACK

This week a judge officially ruled in favor of Escambia County Clerk and Comptroller Pam Childers in her lawsuit with the county. She was being sued for withholding payments to a lucrative 401(a) annuity program where commissioners could receive up to 49 percent of their salary in their personal retirement accounts. The judge ruled that was unlawful compensation for an elected official. At yesterday's commission meeting, Childers publicly asked the commissioners to pay the money they had received back. Childers says Commissioners Lumon May, Robert Bender, and Steven Barry will be receiving letters from the Comptrollers office asking them to repay the money, they'll then have the option of enrolling in the Florida Retirement System plan for the time they were eligible. She says they'll work with the commissioners to allow them to repay the money -- but if they have to they'll go to the courts to get it back.