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Regardless of their political affiliation, Pennsylvania residents weren't inclined to shed a tear in 2012 when Robert Mellow was sent to prison for 16 months and had to forfeit his state pension.
The former Democratic state senator from the Scranton area, who served in the Legislature's upper chamber for 40 years, was sentenced on federal fraud-related charges tied to his use of state-funded staff members to raise money and work on political campaigns.
He violated the public trust and was going to pay significantly for his wrongs.
No cause for feeling sorry about that.
But although he served his jail time, Mellow wasn't content with having lost his post-Senate, post-prison financial security -- his $246,000-a-year pension.
He appealed the pension ruling but his challenge was rejected.
Not so on his second appeal, which was decided last month.
The State Employees' Retirement System board voted 6-5 to reinstate his virtual pot of gold but, in doing that, might have created a dangerous, costly precedent that could rear its ugly head well into the future.
State lawmakers must act quickly to close the troubling window that now appears wide open for future disgraced state politicians and state employees to try to retrieve what they've lost -- even, perhaps, some ex-lawmakers and workers who've been involved in other high-profile cases of wrongdoing over the past decade or so.
State taxpayers, who will foot the bill as long as Mellow collects his pension, also will provide the money for payments and interest for the time his pension was forfeited.
A portion of that money will go to Mellow's ex-wife as part of the couple's divorce settlement.
Diane Mellow also had appealed the decision to strip her now ex-husband of his pension.
Current state law requires employees to forfeit their pensions if they are convicted of, or plead guilty to, certain state crimes, or federal crimes that are "substantially the same as" state crimes.
Mellow's attorneys based his appeal on the contention that his specific crimes -- conspiracy to commit mail fraud and defrauding the U.S. -- were not on the list of convictions that trigger pension forfeiture.
The 6-5 vote by the SERS board is indicative of the board's difficulty in reaching its decision.
Which brings up the "open window" that needs to be slammed shut quickly.
The Mellow pension decision has brought outcry and has renewed calls that proposed pension forfeiture bills languishing in the Legislature be reopened for consideration.
A Philadelphia Inquirer editorial said that a simple fix would be to broaden forfeiture to all state or federal convictions -- a good suggestion.
Whatever the final decision, though, it must be forthcoming quickly.
Mellow no doubt played a part in much that was good in the four decades he served in the Senate, but he was wrong when he came to believe that he was above the law, could engage in illegal conduct and not be caught.
Sorrow or pity in response to such an attitude is hard to muster.