Independent contractors in the public service

Independent contractors in the public service
Roesch v BOCES, App Div, 259 AD2d 900

The Roesch case is another in a series of actions involving claims for retroactive membership in a public retirement system.

Dorothy E. Roesch claimed that her service as a school psychologist with the Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES qualified her for retroactive membership in the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System [TRS]. BOCES had rejected Roesch’s application on the grounds that she was a consultant on a per diem basis serving as an independent contractor and therefore she was ineligible to join TRS during the time in question.

The decision indicated that there were neither payroll or personnel records nor any formal appointment action by BOCES to employ her.

In contrast, such types of records were produced concerning others serving in similar positions indicating that such personnel “were formally appointed” to positions as employees of BOCES. Was this sufficient to support the conclusion that Roesch served as an independent contractor rather than as a BOCES employee?

The Appellate Division ruled that it was, sustaining BOCES’ rejection of Roesch’s application. The court said that there was rational basis for this determination, noting that the BOCES’ minutes of board meetings during the relevant period established that BOCES had a pattern and practice of making formal appointments of full and part-time employees.

The court said that the minutes “were devoid of any reference to the appointment of Roesch during this period when other school psychologists were so appointed by BOCES.”

This, coupled with the lack of any [IRS payroll withholding] W-4 forms that were completed by Roesch while others were produced for school psychologists employed near the relevant time period, “provides a rational basis to support the denial of Roesch’s application for retroactive membership in TRS based on her status as an independent contractor.”

The decision is silent as to whether or not BOCES produced copies of “an employment contract” between it and Roesch or copies of IRS Forms 1099, Miscellaneous to support its position that Roesch was an independent contractor rather than an employee. Typically, an individual providing personnel services to a public entity is deemed to be a public employee unless a contract for “personnel services” is authorized under law and a contract providing for such services has actually been executed by the parties.

In another application for retroactive membership in TRS case, Storrar v Mahopac Central School District, 257 AD2d 628, [motion to appeal denied, 93 NY2d 808], that the statement of the school district’s former payroll clerk that she and Barbara Storrar, a former member of TRS, discussed “FICA [Social Security] deductions versus reenrollment” in TRS was sufficient to establish that the district had “procedure that a reasonable person would recognize as an explanation or request requiring a formal decision ... to join a public retirement system” in place.
NYPPL