Lee County Triple Dippin’

Saving Taxpayer Resources

Ft. Myers, FL — 101 Lee County Schools employees, dissatisfied with their five-year pension cash bonus, have used their public positions to seek a 60% increase, resulting in an eight-year pension cash bonus. This comes at a time when 56% of Lee County High School students cannot read and 63% fail at math. Yet Lee County Schools brags it graduated 85.8% of students in 2024 including many of the 56% who cannot read their Diploma.

Tanglewood Elementary School Principal Linda Buckley was not satisfied with a Five-year $349,479 Pension Cash bonus and $130,122 Salary used her position to apply for an 8 year Pension Bonus of $648,519 while 41% of her students cannot pass basic Reading and 34% cannot pass basic Math tests

The full sort-able list of the 491 Lee School Employees collecting Pension cash bonuses follows.

In total 491 Lee Schools Officials seek a Pension Bonus of $84.6 Million.   Just for showing up to work and collecting $31.1 million in salaries plus $12.44 million in annual benefits* to do the same job at the same time and are the only public employees who don’t pay 3% of their salary $943,927 into the Florida Pension System shifting personal responsibility to taxpayers.

Lee School Bureaucrat and Triple Dipper King Charles Vilardi takes a $673,602 Pension cash bonus, $142,000 Salary, $4,260 not paying 3% of salary into Pension System.  The average Lee County resident making $45,891 or $22 per hour would have to work 14.67 years to earn Lee School Regional Associate Superintendent Charles Vilardi’s $673,602 pension cash bonus and over 3 years to make his salary of $142,000

“Why are taxpayers tolerating poor student outcomes while rewarding school employees responsible for students’ education? How can you learn if you cannot read?” asked Pastor Rick Stephens, Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Florida Citizens Alliance.  Sadly, US News and World Reports documents that the longer students spend in Lee County Schools the lower their test scores become.

“The attitude of entitlement by Lee Schools Employees to take a 60% pension bonus increase at the same time when over 56% students can’t pass basic tests is shameful,” said Dave Jaye, Researcher

Contract Non-Renewal Proposal: Simply don’t renew the contracts of the 491 retired Lee County Schools employees, who take $31.1 million in paychecks, annual benefits of $12.44 Million and $84.6 million in pension cash bonuses. These Retired Triple Dippers are the only Florida Public employees who don’t pay the standard 3% of their salary into the Florida Retirement System $943,927 shifting personal responsibility to taxpayers. We could save $12.44 million annually by hiring younger, healthier, more recently educated entry-level employees to replace these over the hill Triple Dippers.

These ‘Triple Dippers’ have already filed retirement paperwork, and the School Superintendent and School Board should recruit candidates for these positions. Only approximately 32% of Triple Dippers are traditional classroom teachers. School employees seeking a pension cash bonus include: 24 cooks, 5 Driver’s Education instructors, 24 secretaries, 30 janitors, 10 skilled tradesmen, 12 bus drivers, and 5 bus attendants. “Most positions should be privatized just like other Public, Private and Religious Schools,” said Dave Jaye. We predict all current 491 and future Lee School Triple Dippers will apply for an 8-year pension cash bonus taking more classroom money from Students and taxpayers.

Replacement Savings: “Replacing the 491 Triple Dipping Lee School employees with freshly trained and newly educated entry-level personnel could save taxpayers approximately $12.44 million each year without cutting a single school job,” said Lou Navara, a retired Lee Schools Teacher. “Moreover, many of these Triple Dippers are ‘dead wood’ employees holding administrative jobs as ‘pencil pushers’ who do not accomplish much.” These 491 over-paid, mostly over 65-year-old school ‘retirees’ also receive supplemental pay, cashing out unused days off at their highest salary, not when days off were earned, and some even get take-home cars.”

Triple Dipping Explained: Triple Dippers refers to Florida public employees and politicians who file fake retirement paperwork and, for eight years, receive a salary and a pension at the same time to do the same job. Triple Dippers are the only Florida public employees who don’t pay the standard 3% of their salary into the Florida Retirement System, shifting personal responsibility to taxpayers. As a cherry on top, Triple Dippers cash out unused personal, vacation, and sick days at their final highest salary not the salary when days off were earned. This artificially takes more money from taxpayers and spikes up their last year’s pay upon which their pension and pension cash bonus is based.

Call to Action: The Lee School Board and Elected Superintendent are urged not to renew the contracts of these 491 Triple Dippers. Instead, they should replace or privatize these positions, utilizing the $12.44 million in savings to hire tutors who can help students become job- and college-ready. The $12.44 million saved should be allocated for 497,998 tutoring hours to support student learning, rather than increasing the paychecks of school bureaucrats who are failing to educate our children adequately. ($12,440,000 / $24.98 per tutor hour = 497,998 tutor hours, divided by 32,147 high school students = 15.49 hours per student).

Why hasn’t Lee Schools Established a Department of Government Efficiency DOGE?  Public pension cash bonuses have created a $39 billion unfunded Florida pension and health liability, amounting to a $1,725 liability for every man, woman, and child in Florida.