A senior judge has granted Sheriff Mike Slupe’s appeal of his pension accrual rate, reversing a decision from the county retirement board.

Senior Judge Oliver Lobaugh’s July 11 order was recorded in the prothonotary’s office Friday, July 18. The order says the retirement board’s adjudication is reversed and Slupe shall be “properly” classed in the 1/40th accrual class in the Butler County Employee Retirement System.

“The sheriff’s position was vindicated by Judge Lobaugh’s order and we’re pleased with the result,” said Slupe’s attorney Tom King.

Slupe declined to comment.

In August 2024, he appealed the retirement board’s decision to classify him at a 1/60th rate. He argued retirement system plan members — including elected officers — enter the pension plan at an accrual rate of 1/40th as of Jan. 2, 2004.

The accrual rate equals the percentage of pension earned each year over the course of a career.

Slupe was elected Nov. 3, 2009. On March 25, 2009, the last day for candidates to withdraw from the election, the retirement board passed a motion to enter all new employees hired as of April 1, 2009, into the retirement system at a 1/60th accrual rate, according to the appeal.

The county commissioners, who are members of the retirement board, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Treasurer Diane Marburger, who also serves on the board, said she is the only current board member who served when the 1/60th rate was set in 2009.

She said she disagreed with the decision to set Slupe’s rate at 1/60th because it was established in 2009 to reduce the impact on the pension plan from hiring 35 to 40 people for the new county prison, which opened in 2010.

The mass hiring took place on the heals of the “Great Recession” that came when a decade-long expansion in U.S. housing market activity peaked in 2006 and residential construction began declining.

In 2007, losses on mortgage-related financial assets began to cause strains in global financial markets and in December 2007 the U.S. economy entered a recession. That year, several large financial firms experienced financial distress and many financial markets experienced significant turbulence, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Marburger said the county pension plan took a significant hit during the housing crisis, but the 1/60th rate was never intended to be applied to elected row officers or other elected officials.

“I think I was the only member of the board that felt the same way as Mike about this,” Marburger said. “I was sort of the lone voice of dissension.”

In the appeal Slupe filed last year, he argued the retirement board’s decision to change pension benefits after the last day for candidates to withdraw from an election violates Article III, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which prohibits extending the term of public officers or increasing or decreasing their salary or emoluments after their election or appointment.

Slupe first challenged his 1/60th rate through a letter to the retirement board dated Jan. 24, 2022, in which he asked to be placed in the 1/40th class of the retirement system. The board denied his request in a letter dated Nov. 2, 2023, according to the appeal.

He appealed the denial and demanded a hearing on the matter. An administrative hearing was held in April 2024 and the hearing officer also denied the appeal.