Retirees fear supervisors will be rushed to settle SRHS suit
PASCAGOULA -- Retirees and their attorneys say they're afraid a legal settlement over the Singing River Health System's failing pension plan will be presented to the Jackson County Board of Supervisors on Monday for county approval.
It will be the current board's last Board of Supervisors meeting of the year, and some are using the term "pushed through" or "rushed through" to describe what might happen Monday.
Parts of a proposed settlement, which have been made public in the past, show Jackson County paying more than $13 million into the pension plan, with contribution levels listed for SRHS through the coming decades as well. But there has been no guarantee in the settlement that the plan would support the retirees indefinitely, according to attorneys on both sides.
Jim Reeves, lead attorney in the federal mediation, said his idea has been to come up with a settlement all parties agree with and take it back to federal court in an effort to form a class for a class action. Reeves has said in open court the settlement is nearly complete.
The failed pension plan came about as part of a financial debacle at the county's hospital system, which includes Singing River Hospital and Ocean Springs Hospital.
Attorneys working on settling the lawsuit in federal court met Thursday morning at Redding House in Biloxi.
Chancery Judge Breland Hilburn had ordered Earl Denham and Harvey Barton, attorneys who represent more than 200 retirees in a state suit, to attend Thursday's federal mediation, and to keep confidential anything that happened. It is standard that those attending mediation are not allowed to talk about it.
Denham and Barton, who have for that reason refused to attend in the past, went Thursday morning as ordered, but left shortly after it started. Judge David Houston oversaw the mediation.
Barton said his impression from the brief meeting was the settlement is "a done deal. That's in effect what they told us. Judge Houston said this isn't normal mediation."
Barton said the judge told him "it was an abbreviated process, because they are fine-tuning a deal."
Barton was under the impression it would be presented to county supervisors Monday.
It isn't on the agenda.
Supervisor Troy Ross said Thursday night he has received no documents about a settlement to review. He said he contacted attorney Billy Guice, who represents the county in SRHS legal matters, and Guice told him the item coming before the board Monday is not the settlement and "not to expect anything."
"I think it would be unusual for it to all of a sudden show up," Ross said.
Retirees and their attorneys have said they hope the current board will leave resolution of the issue to the new board, which takes office in January. Two of the five county supervisors were replaced in this year's elections.
Kitty Aguilar, spokeswoman for many of the retirees, said, "We're trying to get them to postpone it until after the first of the year."
Denham said he also thinks the attorneys finishing the settlement will try to rush it through for the current board before the end of the year.
"I don't think the incoming board would approve it," Denham said. "This whole plan is designed to bring the lawyers a pile of money and give the county and the hospital immunity (from future suits) and most important, to hide the identities of the people who did this," he said, referring to SRHS' financial mess.
"But it's not going to work, because we're not going to let it become a class," Denham said. "It's designed to fail. And if anyone looks at what's owed, no one is paying back into the retirement. It's mathematically impossible. It won't endure 10 years."
This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 9:04 PM with the headline "Retirees fear supervisors will be rushed to settle SRHS suit ."