Gov. Rick Scott’s choice to run Florida prisons, one of the toughest jobs in state government, will be receiving nearly $10,000 in monthly taxpayer-funded pension payments on top of her $160,000 annual state salary, according to state records.
Scott last week tapped Julie Jones, 57, to become the new secretary of the Department of Corrections eight months after she retired as head of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, a post she had held since 2009.
Upon retirement, Jones received a $621,980 lump sum payment as part of what’s known as the Deferred Retirement Option Program. Longtime state employees who want to enter the program agree to retire within five years and have their pension funds placed into an interest-earning account. Upon retirement, they get a lump sum payment before beginning to collect monthly pension benefits.
Employees in the program can return to work for the state and collect a salary and pension payments from taxpayers. In Jones’ case, she will begin collecting $9,730 in monthly pension payments in May, on top of the more than $13,000 a month from her state salary, state records show.
Jones said she did not plan to return to state government once leaving in April, but could not pass up Scott’s offer.
“I had opened an LLC, I wanted to do some consulting and travel,” Jones said. “This was an unexpected call.”
Jones said she never reached out to Scott’s office after former corrections Secretary Michael Crews resigned in November but was aware there was speculation she would take over as state prisons chief.
“I had lobbyists and lawmakers calling me saying, ‘We can work with you,’?” Jones said. “I said, ‘Guys, the governor’s office has not even reached out to me yet.’?”
Scott declined to comment.
DROP was created as a way to encourage older employees to retire and make way for younger workers who make less money. It has come under fire in recent years after media reports showed high-level state employees returning to work after a brief retirement and collecting a salary and pension.
Lawmakers tried to reign in the program in 2011 by passing legislation reducing the guaranteed annual interest rate from 6.5 percent to 1.3 percent for those entering the program after July 2011. Legislation has been filed in the past to abolish the program, but none has gained any momentum.
Jones, who will be Florida’s first female corrections secretary, has been in government for more than 30 years, serving in the law enforcement division of the Fish and Wildlife Commission for 26 years before joining the highway department.
She has no past prison experience, but Scott said her experience with law enforcement made her the right pick.
“It is evident through her work across state government that she is a true reformer who is laser-focused on ensuring accountability and transparency,” Scott said in a statement.
Jones said her lack of prison experience will be a benefit.
“I’m not going to be your typical person to come into this,” she said. “I want to be thoughtful and do the right thing by people, which is something I’ve done.”
The reformer mentality was sought to help fix a department rocked in recent months by prisoner deaths and a lawsuit from four former corrections officers who say they were punished after raising questions about an inmate’s death.
In an effort to right the ship, Crews, the former corrections secretary, fired 32 prison guards in September. He later admitted that there was a “lack of consistent consequences” for prison staff who committed crimes.
Jones says she wants to boost the department’s community outreach, and wants to focus on reforming prisoners to help make sure they don’t return after being released.
“The top job of the corrections secretary is to make sure prisoners are safe,” Jones said. “We should be examining what their needs are.”