Lynn in talks to recover benefits of Chandler

LYNN – Attorneys for former city development director Jansi Chandler and the state retirement board are discussing if Chandler must pay back the city up to $132,000 in retirement benefits.Lynn Retirement Board Director Gary Brenner said the talks are ongoing and no specific date for resolving them has been set.”We are having discussions with PERAC (state Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission) to get a better understanding of their issues in hopes of resolving the matter,” Chandler said Monday.PERAC in May said it wanted Chandler or her former employer, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, to pay back up to $151,000 in what state officials termed excess earnings. Chandler has since left the Boston agency’s employment and on Monday said she is working as development director for Grant Communications, owned by her husband, Edward M. Grant.The commission claimed state retirement law limited Chandler to working 960 hours a year for the BRA. PERAC officials said she exceeded the limit by 690 hours in 2008 and by smaller numbers of hours in previous years dating back to 2000.In a May 11 letter to Chandler’s former employer, PERAC indicated her excess earnings jumped from $7,800 in 2005 to $33,000 in 2006 then jumped to $48,000 last year for a total of $116,900 in income from the agency in 2008.Brenner was not certain why the $151,000 figure had been reduced by $20,000 but said the Retirement Board may be responsible for collecting the excess earnings from Chandler once a number is agreed upon.Chandler retired from city service in 1998 and receives a $35,600 annual city pension.State officials gave the BRA the option in May to collect the excess earning amount from Chandler. Brenner said the agency informed the state it did not plan to pursue the money. That decision leaves any bid to recoup the money, if Chandler does not agree to repay it, in the Lynn board’s hands.”We are going to be a party to it,” he said.PERAC Director Joseph Connarton in a May 11 letter to the BRA said the Lynn board could “recoup an amount reflective of the total retirement allowance paid for each year of excess earnings.”