Catoosa County advances pension funds for former firefighter

RINGGOLD — Catoosa County officials elected to help out a former employee by granting his request for an advance on his pension due to financial hardship.

During the Feb. 5 Board of Commissioner’s meeting, County Attorney Chad Young presented the request to commissioners and explained how the process would work.

“This is a former employee’s request for a hardship distribution of his employee portion of contributions to the county pension plan prior to the expiration of the six-month waiting period,” Young said. “The existing county pension plan that is governed by IRS regulations requires that any employee that leaves the employment of the county must wait six months before they can receive their funds.”

The hardship request came from Zac Steele, a former firefighter in the county.

Young said there is a modest history of commissioners granting such a request.

“There is precedent in two prior occasions where the Board of Commissioners has authorized the county to advance the employee’s portion of the pension funds prior to the six-month waiting period upon approval by the Board of Commissioners and upon the employee signing a promissory note agreeing that the county would be repaid from their portion of the pension plus interest at the time it was released from the county’s pension plan,” Young explained.

Steele will have to sign a promissory note agreeing to pay the advanced amount to the county plus interest at the rate of six-percent, which will be deducted from his portion of the pension plan before it’s distributed to him.

The county will advance Steele his portion of the pension minus six-percent, and then the county will recoup those funds instead of dispersing them to Steele when the pension plan funds come in.