Top pensioner at Oregon Public Employee Retirement System: Mike Bellotti at $41,000 a month
. Mike Bellotti
$41,341.67
Mike Bellotti, 60, is former athletic director of the University of Oregon, and former head football coach for the Oregon Ducks. He resigned last year to become a college football analyst for television.
Reached at his home Monday evening, Bellotti said he didn't make the PERS rules, and simply lived by the package he was offered when he signed on at the University of Oregon in 1989. He said his pension was a fraction of his final annual compensation from the University, which he said was between $1.9 million to $2 million, and that he'd passed up several offers to leave for more money.
"Put in all the taxes I've paid to the state of Oregon," he said.
2. Frederick Keller
$31,459.45
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The Oregonian’s continuing coverage of the Oregon Public Employee Retirement System
Dr. Frederick S. Keller is an interventional radiologist with Oregon Health & Science University. He became director of OHSU’s Dotter Institute in 1993. He is the Cook Professor of Interventional Therapy, professor of surgery, and chair of the department of diagnostic radiology at OHSU. He's been a licensed physician in Oregon since 1974.
3. Lesley Hallick
$23,917.22
Lesley Hallick spent 32 years at Oregon Health & Science University, starting as an assistant professor in microbiology in 1977. She went on to become vice president for academic affairs and the University's first provost. She left OHSU in 2009 to become president of Pacific University.
4. Steven Goldschmidt
$21,517.24
Steve Goldschmidt, 67, is former director of human resources for Portland Public Schools (he was fired in 2005 by new Portland Public School superintendent Vicki Phillips). That same year an arbitrator ruled that Phillips wrongfully fired and damaged the reputation of Goldschmidt, brother of former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt was awarded $620,000 an amount that includes $250,000 for the tarnished reputation. Before being hired by Ben Canada as the HR directory, Goldschmidt represented the Eugene School District during a 22-day strike in 1987 — the longest teachers strike in state history.
5. David Frohnmayer
$21,027.21
David Frohnmayer, 71, is former Oregon Attorney General, former dean at the University of Oregon School of Law, and former president of the university. His last day as president was June 30, 2009. In September 2009 he became "of counsel" to the Harrang Long Gary Rudnick law firm, accepting select projects in legal, public policy and other matters. His prior public service also includes three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives.
6. Peter Kohler
$20,252.33
Dr. Peter O. Kohler was president of Oregon Health & Science University for 18 years. His name is stamped on the 11-story patient-care building that OHSU opened in 2006. Kohler retired in September 2007. Later that year he became vice chancellor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Fayetteville.
7. Frank W. Anderson
$20,209.13
Frank W. Anderson is an 83-year-old University of Oregon mathematics professor from 1957, but retired in the past decade. He's currently listed as a professor emeritus. The Anderson Award, endowed by Frank W. Anderson, honors an advanced graduate student with the department’s (math) most outstanding teaching record.
8. William A. Korach
$20,068.81
Lake Oswego Superintendent of Schools, William A. Korach, 65, is the longest-tenured superintendent of any school district in Oregon. Earlier this year Korach announced his plans to retire while continuing to work part-time.
9. Peter Von Hippel
$19,677.95
A longtime University of Oregon professor of biophysical chemistry and molecular biology, Peter von Hippel, a prominent cancer researcher, retired in 1999 after 32 years. He has continued to head the University's Institute on Molecular Biology, a laboratory funded by the National Institutes of Health. He is an American Cancer Society Research Professor of Chemistry, and continues to work full time with post-doctorate students and others. "I'm not getting paid; I'm doing this because I like to," he says. "I put in a lot of 12 hour days."
He said it's not fair to focus on pensions, because university researchers in Oregon have historically been paid less than counterparts in other states-- and accepted pension increases in lieu of negotiating better salary. "Several times while we were working they asked us to take an increase in our pension rather than salary. That's one of the reasons why our pensions are high."
10. Anthony Montanaro
$19,477.82
Montanaro retired as vice chair of OHSU's Department of Medicine with a final-year salary and bonuses of $460,000. He now works part-time as head of OHSU's Division of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.
"I've worked hard for a long time. The Oregonian didn't come to me when I was making $12,000 a year as a young faculty member. Obviously when you work at a place for a long time you start at the bottom and obviously I was asked to be in a position of responsibility the last few years. I didn't seek that out, I was asked.
I totally am aware that there are a lot of people that are going to find this objectionable, but basically I played by the rules and worked hard for a long time. I'm probably not helping myeslf by talking to you, but I'm just being honest. I didn't write the rules."
Upon being told it was a top 10 list, "Why couldn't i have been 11th" he quipped.
