Retired Presiding Judge Verne Hodge is seeking a $400,000 payment from the government for annual and sick leave he accumulated in his 23-year tenure at Territorial Court. The amount is almost four times his annual salary at the time he retired Oct. 31, 1999.
Finance Commissioner Bernice Turnbull has asked Attorney General Iver Stridiron for guidance about paying the unusually large sum.
"There’s nothing illegal about it," Hodge said Friday. Stridiron has already sided once with Hodge, but Turnbull has asked him to take a second look.
For most government employees, annual leave is effectively capped at two years’ worth – or 960 hours – at the time of retirement.
However, a law passed in the 1970s (and later repealed) exempts the judges who were seated at that time from any limit on accumulated leave.
Hodge is the last of the judges covered by the law. And his payment apparently would be the largest.
Former judges Eileen Petersen, Henry Feuerzeig, Henry Smock, the late Antoine Joseph and the late Irwin Silverlight were all entitled to leave payments accumulated without time restrictions, said attorney Glenda Lake, Territorial Court administrator.
The law was even tested in District Court when Joseph retired, Hodge noted. And it was upheld.
But now, he said, "the principle goes out the window because of the amount."
Hodge does not believe the payout is excessive. He said it does not include any overtime. In fact, "I lost over $2 million in overtime because we don’t get paid overtime."
Besides, he said, "half of (the $400,000) is taxes" he’ll pay.
The controversy has been brewing since November but all the parties were publicly mum until this week.
Stridiron wrote the Finance commissioner Dec. 14, advising her that "the payroll record of the Court Clerk for Judge Hodge is supported by legal authority and you may proceed to make the appropriate disbursements."
In an interview Friday, Stridiron said he is going by the law that was in effect for Hodge and other judges seated at the time of its passage.
"It was since repealed," Stridiron said. "But they were entitled to it (the unlimited accrual) and so we’re obligated to do what was required back then.
"And Judge Hodge has served long and humbly," Stridiron said, adding he is "not in favor of trying to dodge the law."
Nevertheless, he said Turnbull has asked him a second question. She wants him to look into how far back sick leave may be accrued.
Turnbull has had little to say on the issue. After dodging telephone calls for more than a week, she said Friday that "the whole matter is under review" and once the review is over, information will be available.
Hodge said he has offered to take the payment in installments.
The money would be paid out of the General Fund but, Lake said, it will be charged to the court’s budget. That budget this year is $17. 4 million.
Territorial Court judges earn $100,000 a year. The presiding judge earns $110,000. After 20 years of service, a judge retires at full pay.
