This story ran in today's paper and was posted on our main Web page, but I figured I'd put it here, too, because you seem to be the kind of readers who would pay attention to this stuff. (Plus, I'm trying to get the attention of the House Democratic flacks who put together the E-Clips.)

Former Eatonville High School principal Randy Dorn, who is now running for state schools superintendent, tried for the past two years to get the Legislature to pass a law to sweeten his pension benefits by more than $90,000 a year.

And he got halfway there.

In 2007, the House voted 95-0 to approve House Bill 1067, a measure that would have let Dorn and one other employee of the Public School Employees union become members in two state retirement systems. The upshot of that dual membership is that Dorn’s retirement benefits would have been based on the $137,705 he makes as PSE’s executive director, rather than the $57,720 he earned 10 years ago as Eatonville High School principal.

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State officials estimated that Dorn and Tom Lopp, the union’s lobbyist, would have collected nearly $600,000 in additional retirement benefits if the bill had become law. That assumed both would retire in about 10 years and collect their pensions for at least 15 years thereafter.

However, despite the overwhelming vote by the House, the pension bill died in the Senate budget committee.

“It was one of those bills that looked so specific that we just didn’t feel it was the wise way to go,” said Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee. “We talked about it and we just thought it wouldn’t look good. It would look like a favor for a friend.”

Dorn served in the Legislature, representing areas such as Graham and Eatonville, from late 1987 to 1994.

Senators knew the bill would benefit only the two union members, although it might have helped others in the future, Prentice said.

The same bill was automatically reintroduced in the House during this year’s legislative session, but did not come up for a vote.

‘that doesn’t seem right to me’

Dorn, 54, has been executive director of the 26,000-member union for eight years. The Public School Employees union represents the nonteaching staff – cooks, janitors, bus drivers and computer technicians.

He said Wednesday that he was just trying to get fair pensions for himself and Lopp by letting both transfer from the Teachers Retirement System Plan 1 to the Public Employees Retirement System Plan 1.

“Everybody else can transfer, but we can’t,” Dorn said. “That doesn’t seem right to me.”

He also said the cost to the state would have been negligible, and that benefits for himself and Lopp have been exaggerated.

“I still think they are totally wrong,” Dorn said. “The year before (2007), it was going to cost zero. Then, this year, it had this high cost.”

He said the pair are being penalized because they are enrolled in the teachers’ retirement plan instead of the state workers’ pension plan. He said if he were to get a high-paying job as a school district superintendent, the improvement to his pension would be the same as if House Bill 1067 had passed.

“If I quit and left PSE and became superintendent at Bethel, it would have the exact same effect,” Dorn said.

So would winning election to the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The salary for that office is $122,000.

Dorn said the salary and the pension have nothing to do with his campaign.

“The only reason I’m doing this is for the kids,” he said.

Incumbent Terry Bergeson, who has held office for 12 years, is seeking a fourth term. Richland School Superintendent Richard Semler, who has the backing of the 81,000-member Washington Education Association, also is running.

State Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, said she agreed to sponsor the pension bill because Dorn and Lopp asked her to.

“As it was presented to me, there was no cost,” Haigh said Wednesday. “Last year, nobody said there was any cost. Not staff. Not anybody. It didn’t seem that big a deal at the time. And I would admit, I don’t know all the ins and outs of the retirement systems.

“When it came back this year, staff got more involved,” she said. “And when they said it was going to cost a lot of money, I dropped it.”

Haigh said she was a logical sponsor because she is chairwoman of the House Appropriation Committee’s subcommittee on education.

Reps. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma; Skip Priest, R-Federal Way; Bill Fromhold, D-Vancouver; Tami Green, D-Lakewood; Geoff Simpson, D-Covington; Phyllis Kenney, D-Seattle; Mark Ericks, D-Bothell; and former Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, also signed on in support of the pension bill.

Haigh said she doesn’t feel hoodwinked by Dorn and Lopp.

“My eyes were wide open,” she said. “I just didn’t have that information. They didn’t seem to think it was a true (cost estimate). They felt that someone was out to get them.”