VA directors received retention bonuses just before retiring?

Haley, Bay Pines VA directors received retention bonuses just before retiring

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, August 29, 2011

TAMPA — The former directors of Tampa Bay's two veterans hospitals received a combined $65,000 in retention bonuses not because another hospital called with a better job.

They got them, oddly enough, because they were close to retirement.

A St. Petersburg Times review of retention bonuses paid to the directors of the Haley and Bay Pines VA medical centers calls into question whether the Department of Veterans Affairs ever determined that the men would have left their jobs without the extra money.

Both directors said they never asked for the money.

In fact, Bay Pines' former director, Wallace Hopkins, 64, said the bonuses did not delay his retirement at all.

"But the retention was nice to build up my savings account," said Hopkins, who worked at the VA for 40 years.

Hopkins, who retired April 1, and former Haley director Stephen Lucas continued to receive retention payments for three months or more after announcing their retirements, the VA confirmed. Lucas, 66, retired in March 2010.
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