Link: https://coloradosun.com/2023/05/17/ron-baker-pera-severance/
Excerpt:
The fired head of Colorado’s $60 billion-plus public pension system will receive a year’s salary — more than $400,000 — as severance, under his contract and because of the way his employment was terminated.
Ron Baker was fired May 1 by the 16-member Public Employees’ Retirement Association board nearly two months after he went on a leave of absence.
Neither the board nor PERA has disclosed why Baker was fired, and Colorado Sun attempts over the past several months to contact Baker have been unsuccessful. Emails, texts and voicemail messages to Baker from The Sun, including for this story, were not returned.
Baker will get $412,108.80 in severance because the board terminated his contract without cause. Had he been fired for cause, he wouldn’t have been eligible to collect the severance.
Baker’s contract says he could only be fired for cause if there was a breach of his employment agreement, for gross negligence, or if he had committed or pleaded guilty or no contest to a felony criminal charge. The contract says he could also be fired for cause for “wilfully engaging in any activity which is contrary to the best interest of the association (for) which activity is uncured by the executive for a reasonable period of time after he receives written notice concerning such activity.”
Author(s): Jesse Paul
Publication Date: 17 May 2023
Publication Site: Colorado Sun