Jill Mayer, who held a Superior Court judgeship hostage for three years while mounting a legal battle to keep her state pension while serving on the bench, won’t accept the post after all.
The hoggish Mayer has received another offer, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
The State Senate confirmed Mayer, a former Camden County Prosecutor and deputy attorney general, to her judgeship in January 2022, but she has delayed taking the oath of office for 34 months while she fought to double dip.
Mayer filed for retirement in December 2021. With a salary bump to $197,000 during more than two years as acting Camden County Prosecutor, Mayer qualified for an annual pension of roughly $10,600 monthly.
The state Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) turned Mayer down three times, telling her she couldn’t collect a government pension and a judicial salary simultaneously because state law prohibited drawing a pension and a salary from a “pre-arranged agreement for reemployment” before retirement.
In 2021, the state Division of Pensions told Mayer that she could not receive her state pension if she accepted a position as a Superior Court Judge. She appeared before the PERS board on December 7, 2021, to appeal the decision but was unsuccessful.
But last month, a panel of state appellate court judges jumped Mayer to the head of the line during a hefty backup of appellate cases, saying she could keep her $127,000 annual state pension while earning $211,00-per-year as a Superior Court Judge.
Instead, the appellate judges – which moved unusually fast, rendering a decision in just five weeks – said that “arguably, the Senate confirmation could be described as an offer of employment and there will be no ‘agreement’ until Mayer takes the oath of office. Certainly, there was a ‘mutual understanding’ after confirmation.”
Since Mayer has not yet been sworn in and the 180 days have passed she left her old state job, the judges found that she was clear to take her pension while collecting her salary.
In the meantime, the 55-year-old Mayer had been camping out at a politically powerful South Jersey law firm, Parker McCay, while squatting on a judgeship the state judiciary no longer considers to be vacant. She is no longer listed on their website.
Gov. Phil Murphy filed his intent to nominate Mayer to replace retired Judge George Leone on December 13, 2021. She was fast-tracked in the Senate, with her nomination received on January 4, 2022, a Judiciary Committee vote on January 6, and confirmation by the full Senate on January 10.
The delay in Mayer’s ascendancy to the bench comes at a time when the New Jersey courts continue to experience a significant shortage of judges and a backlog of cases.