An updated pension roll released by the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System includes at least one-eye popping number.

$76,111.28

That's the check the system is cutting each month to Joe Robertson, the president of Oregon Health & Science University, who retired at the end of October after nearly 33 years at the Portland university.

That translates to $913,335 a year, making Robertson the top public pension recipient in the state, easily surpassing OHSU neurosurgeon Johnny Delashaw, who retired in 2015 and now receives annual benefits of $684,944; or former University of Oregon football coach Mike Bellotti, who retired in 2010 and now receives $558,690 a year in benefits.

Joe Robertson

Robertson's payout is about 20 times the average benefit for a 30-year member of the system.

Each year, PERS releases an updated database of retiree benefits to The Oregonian/OregonLive under a legal settlement the two organizations reached in 2011. PERS had stopped releasing that information in 2002, arguing that the information was exempt from disclosure under public records law, citing privacy concerns. The database covers 129,544 people receiving pension benefits as of Jan. 1, 2018.

So why are Robertson's benefits so high? In his case, it's not the system's money match formula, a lucrative if financially misguided formula that ballooned pension benefits for a broad, two-decade cohort of public employees and is one of the main factors behind the system's $22 billion funding deficit.

Rather, it was his long tenure at OHSU and the high compensation he earned in his last three years, which averaged nearly $1.7 million. Under the standard retirement formula for older employees, he receives 1.67 percent of his final average salary for every year worked, or about 55 percent of the total, along with some add-ons for unused sick leave and vacation.

In fact, his starting pension might have been higher – nearly $1.1 million a year – but he chose a survivor option that lowered the payout.

In an interview Thursday, Robertson, 66, said he decided to retire after a medical rollercoaster that ultimately resulted in his diagnosis with multiple sclerosis.

"As my diagnosis of MS started to become clear, I tried to find a way to stay on indefinitely, but I ultimately realized that wasn't the best thing for me or for OHSU," he said. "So, for my health and for the sake of my family, I decided to begin a transition out of the president’s office."

Robertson’s 12-year tenure as OHSU president was marked by dramatic physical and financial growth, including a 33 percent increase in research dollars, 4,500 new employees, massive fundraising for the Knight Cancer Challenge, a slew of new strategic partnerships, and a major buildout of new facilities on both Marquam Hill and the South Waterfront.

Though he retired Oct. 31, he is serving as president though the end of the academic year without salary to ensure continuity during the search for his replacement. He plans to continue working with one of the university's health institutes, OHSU Global, and be on-call at the Casey Eye Institute.

"The only reason I'm retiring is for health reasons," he said. "This isn't a job, it's a lifestyle, and you have to be all in."

Breathtaking payouts like those atop the PERS roll are anomalies – the system's average benefit for recent retirees is about $32,000 annually. There are about 2,000 beneficiaries who earn more than $100,000 a year, and many of those at the top of the benefits heap are OHSU doctors, whose clinical income is also part of the pension calculation.

Moreover, truly huge public pensions are gradually becoming a thing of the past.

Pension reforms undertaken by the Legislature in 2003 took the rocket fuel out of the system's money match formula and reduced the percentage of salary in the standard retirement formula for each year of service for newer employees.

Moreover, the Internal Revenue System already caps the salaries that can be used to calculate pension benefits for public employees. It's inflation indexed, and was $270,000 in 2017, which would yield a far lower benefit. But the cap applies only to employees hired after 1996, so the full effect won't kick in for another decade.

Legislators have also run bills to cap Oregon's pensionable salaries at $100,000. It's not clear whether there's much support for that cap, as it would affect a wide swath of employees. But even if lawmakers were to pass such a bill, it would apply only prospectively, to future service rendered.

- Ted Sickinger

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger