COLUMBUS

The board of Ohio Veterans Home has approved an early retirement program that could save the agency $1 million over two years.

The action opens the door for Col. Christine Cook, OVH Network director, to seek the needed approval from the Office of Budget Management and the Public Employee Retirement System.

OVH is hoping to get PERS and budget management approval so it can begin realizing the savings by July 1, the start of its fiscal year.

Outlined in the Ohio Revised Code, the Early Retirement Incentive allows employees who are within five years of retirement to do so early and enjoy full benefits.

OVH plans to make the program available, for one year, to employees who are two years away from retirement.

Under the program, the employer estimates how much it and the retired employee would have paid into the public employees' retirement system during the worker's last two working years and makes that payment.

"The benefit to the agency is that it opens up a vacancy that we can elect to fill at an entry level of pay or that we can decide not to fill and realize the entire savings," Human Resources Administrator Robert Day said.

Further easing the agency's financial burden, PERS allows agencies to make those payments in quarterly installments, instead of every month, over two years.

The difference between entry level and senior level positions can be as much as $15,000-$20,000, Day said.

The latest round of state budget cuts left the facility $633,000 short.

"The early retirement incentive allows us to ease any budget concerns we would have for '04 and '05," Day said. "Personnel costs are by far and away the largest cost in the agency so it is the most identifiable area to generate savings."

In Cook's report to the board Wednesday, she shared information about the agency's voluntary leave-without-pay program, which allows employees to take time off work without pay or penalty.

In her report, Cook said after eight weeks, the program has saved the agency $111,200, allowing it to recall seven furloughed employees.

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