Five years later, Hall County and its employees are still waging legal battle regarding the latter’s pension benefits in an estimated $75 million class-action lawsuit.
Brad Rounds summed up the feeling with the word “aggravation.”
"Can you imagine that this thing has (dragged) out for five years?” asked Rounds, one of the chief plaintiffs in the case. “We never would have expected that."
The plaintiffs originally served the lawsuit on the Hall County Board of Commissioners Jan. 12, 2017, arguing that roughly 100 current and retired Hall County employees in the expected class had their pension benefits unlawfully frozen.
The lawsuit was filed against the county, its board of commissioners and the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.
Rounds, who was hired in 1988, retired as a captain in the Hall County Sheriff’s Office in September 2019 after three decades.
The $75 million question has revolved around a change in the benefit plan in 1998, which changed the formula.
In Rounds’ case, he would get a monthly pension payout of $2,567 under the old formula.
Under the freeze of benefits since 1998, his monthly payout would be only $389, according to the lawsuit.
The county has argued in court that the county lawfully amended the pension plan.
For the employees reaching retirement age, their livelihoods hinge on how this decision plays out. Rounds said there are employees that are hanging on, seeing what their future will look like.
"If we don't have anything to live on,...
This article was also published in REDESCover, DDIA’s weekly newsletter. Click here to subscribe and get the next edition delivered straight to your inbox. With just over two weeks until the Novem...