VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Human Rights Commission could soon make a recommendation to Virginia Beach City Council regarding the mandatory retirement age debate for law enforcement workers.
In a drafted letter, the commission is asking council to either increase the age to 70-years-old, or get rid of the mandatory age altogether. The letter still could change before the vote next Thursday's vote.
Police Chief Jim Cervera asked city council last month to consider bumping it up to 70-years-old from 65-years-old.
Chief Cervera is 64 and turns 65 next April.
The city ordinance says no sworn law enforcement officer "...shall be employed after the end of the month in which he or she attains age sixty-five."
"If I'm 64 and 11 months, I can do the job. But, at 65 I can no longer do it? I think we can have other things in place to say to someone 'You're capable and you're eligible'," Chief Cervera told 13News Now in an exclusive interview.
The chief said he currently has two officers who are turning 65. Both want to keep working.
One told council he wants to stay until the end of the school year, saying "I'm not asking to stay to 67".
That was on September 3.
"I think if someone has that intrinsic virtue, and they're capable, they should be allowed to do it," said Chief Cervera.
He said increasing the retirement age would align with the Virginia Retirement System.
Cervera has letters of support from groups including the Virginia Beach Interdenominational Ministers Conference, The Virginia Beach Restaurants Association and the Atlantic Avenue Association.
The council, however, chose to stick with a proposal that came from Sheriff Ken Stolle in the spring.
At the time, Stolle wanted to lower the mandatory retirement age for his office from 70 to 65.
He said it was part of the process to address the pay disparity between the sheriff's office and police department.
"The city manager agreed that the pay parity was necessary, so he implemented pay parity and one of those things about pay parity was that we had to have the same benefits so I agreed to lower the age to 65," said Sheriff Stolle.
When council approved the change to the ordinance, it only impacted the sheriff's office because they had previously raised the retirement age to 70. Although police and fire are included in the language of the ordinance, the change did not impact their departments because their retirement age has always remained 65-years-old.
Although people have suggested Stolle's push to lower the age may have had something to do with Cervera personally, the sheriff said it's not the case. It's about keeping his deputies paid equally.
Stolle also pointed to a survey the city manager's office did with law enforcement workers, where most people polled agreed with keeping the age at 65.
The Virginia Beach Police Benevolent Association and Virginia Beach Professional Firefighters are leaning on that as well, and supporting the current rule.
As for the chief, he doesn't think pay disparity should have been part of the conversation. He didn't know it was, and he said it wasn't discussed back in 2015 when Stolle actually asked that the retirement age be bumped up to 70.
The agenda item in 2015 presented to council said, "Increasing the retirement age promotes employment of older persons based on their ability to perform the essential functions of the job rather than eliminate them based on age. Overall improvement in health and abilities of individuals between the ages of 55 and 65 suggest that mandatory retirement is unfair, particularly for those who maintain the ability to perform the essential functions of the job and do so competently."
Sheriff Stolle said he believed that was the best thing to do at the time. But, over the years, he believes the increase hurt recruitment and retention rates.Therefore, he doesn't believe it's the best case now.
He also thinks the survey results also helps with the decision to lower it, a resource the sheriff's office didn't have in 2015.
"My perspective, a way to solve all of this confusion, a way to drop the rhetoric, a way to have a good social conversation about this, is to go back to the original documentation," said Chief Cervera.
"It's their policy. If they want to change it, I'm happy with that," Stolle told 13News Now. "As long as the pay parity is intact, I'm fine and I've lived up to my terms."
Cervera said he wants to stay on the job, but more important, he wants a policy that'll help his officers who want to do the same.
"Let's not worry about Chief Jim Cervera. Let's worry about the two officers who are going to have to go in December," he said.
Last month, council discussed the possibility of raising the age limit but didn't take any action. They'll take it up again as a council at a later date once they've collected the requested data.