Sykesville mulls new retirement plan By Jennifer Jiggetts, Times Staff Writer Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009 Sykesville officials will use more than $335,000 from its employees’ current retirement funds to buy into a pension system that they hope will help attract and retain qualified job candidates, particularly on the town’s police force. Council members recently voted to switch to the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System. This is one of the changes to an amended budget that will have a public hearing Monday. The town is holding the hearing to authorize increasing the budget from $3.1 million to $3.4 million. Among other changes behind the increase, the town lost about $100,000 in anticipated revenue when developer Cafritz Interests backed out of the Warfield Commerce and Cultural Center. Other changes include $90,000 for accessibility renovations to Baldwin’s Station and $50,000 to relocate a Main Street house in order to expand parking on the street. The town currently offers employees a 401(a), a public sector version of a 401(k) plan. The change to the pension plan could begin in July. Del. Susan Krebs, R-District 9B, recently introduced a bill to allow Sykesville to buy into the state pension plan at 75 percent, about $335,575. The bill has a hearing scheduled in the House of Delegates Tuesday. Town Manager Matt Candland said that this bill is needed because anything under 100 percent requires legislation. Krebs said House Bill 745 only applies to Sykesville but other municipalities can request similar legislation if they wanted to buy into the plan. The town could not afford buying into the plan at 100 percent, which would have cost $575,523, Candland said. The other costs of switching into the pension program are the legal fees: $15,000 for legal counsel for the ruling and $11,500 to obtain the ruling. Candland said the town budgeted to have an actuarial study done for the retirement buy-in in October. Candland said the change to offering a pension plan rather than a 401(a) will help the town recruit and retain police officers. “We were having a very difficult time keeping police officers,” Candland said. “It’s expected for them to want a pension plan.” Candland said Police Chief John R. Williams reported that the police department was fully staffed for only 12 months between November 2001 and January 2009. Williams was not available for comment Friday. “We had a lot of officers that were potential candidates who withdrew because we didn’t have a pension,” Candland said. Reach staff writer Jennifer Jiggetts at 410-857-7873 or jennifer.jiggetts@carrollcountytimes.com.