The Supervisor of Elections and County Appraiser race have heated up again after a statewide watchdog group asked candidates to promise not to triple-dip into the state’s Deferred Retirement Option Program, or DROP.

The form asks candidates to promise not to take a pension bonus and agree that the taxpayer-paid salary is sufficient. Supervisor of Elections Melissa Blazier, 46, a Republican, and Republican challenger Dave Shaffel, 64, signed notarized agreements, but Republican challenger Tim Guerrette, 57, and Deputy Chief Appraiser Vickie Downs, 77, who is running for appraiser, did not sign the form, according to Dave Jaye, a researcher and founder of tripledippers.org.

Appraiser Republican candidates Jim Molenaar, 55, and Julian Stokes, 71, signed it. The Supervisor of Elections position pays $177,000 while the appraiser post pays $177.211.

If Guerrette were elected, Jaye said, he would collect salary on top of his $9,663 monthly pension, without having to contribute 3% into the pension system. Guerrette said if he did receive an email from tripledippers.org, it must have gone into spam and he deleted it. “I would have happily signed it because it doesn’t impact me in any way,” Guerrette said. “I’ve already retired from the Florida retirement system. … I’m not running for office for the money. I like public service.”

In 2016, Guerrette, a chief at the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, signed retirement paperwork to continue working five years more while his pension, which was set at the 2016 amount, was placed in a low-interest account. When he retired in 2021, the $579,751 “bonus” was available to him. Allowing employees to continue working, he said, helped government employers that were having difficulties hiring and training people.

“It’s not bonus money, it’s retirement money I would have gotten anyway, so there’s no double or triple dipping,” Guerrette said. “That’s retirement money employees would collect if they were sitting on the beach.”

If Downs is elected and signs up for the pensioncash bonus program, Jaye said, she’d earn $177,211 and a pension without paying 3%, $5,316 yearly, into the state retirement system. That would provide a roughly $576,000 cash bonus after her four-year term, he said, and if re-elected her bonus would reach $1.1 million. Downs could not be reached for comment.

~Aisling Swift