Former employee tells board an 8-year pension verification fight left her facing $20,000 in extra costs

Lauren Miglino Ronza, a lifelong Little Egg Harbor resident and former Pinelands employee, told the board she has spent eight years trying to secure pension buyback verification and that repeated district nonresponses have increased the amount she must now pay by more than $20,000.

Ronza described her decades-long connection to the district and a timeline of attempts to have substitute and contracted service recognized as pensionable time. She said she first contacted the state in 2018 and was told substitute service could be purchased as pensionable years. She then sought verification from district staff: first Cynthia Hoffman, who she says told her to compile and submit records; later Sarah O'Toole, who Ronza said failed to reply to repeated state verification requests; and other staff members she named in her testimony. Ronza said multiple state requests went unanswered and that, on more than one occasion, the state closed her application for lack of district verification.

"This has been an 8 year ordeal," Ronza said, adding she had prepared printed records of emails and state correspondence and requested that the board resolve the matter within 45 days. She said if the district did not resolve it she would seek legal counsel.

Board Chair apologized for the delay, thanked Ronza for her community service, and said the board would "definitely be in touch with you in the next week." No formal decision or board action resolving the pension verification was recorded in the meeting minutes; the matter was left for administrative follow-up.

The board's public comment rules and the timeline of events were read to the record; Ronza's remarks provide a public account of an ongoing personnel/records dispute that she says has financial consequences.