State to pay $473,000 to veteran who wanted his job back

By Cy Ryan

Friday, July 13, 2012 | 5:03 p.m.

The state will pay a $473,000 settlement to a man who worked for three months as chief deputy state controller, left for five years of military service, and could not regain his former job upon his return.

The state Board of Examiners approved the payment Friday to Arthur E. Ingram III, who now lives in New Jersey. The payment will settle the suit brought by the federal government against the state.

Controller Kim Wallin said this is a case about states' rights "and what the federal government can tell constitutional officers who they can hire."

Ingram was hired as chief deputy by former Controller Kathy Augustine but left the job in June 2003 to volunteer as an officer in the Army and served in Germany and Washington, D.C.

He returned to Carson City in 2008 and asked Controller Kim Wallin for his old job back. She had filled the position with her own appointee. She offered him the job of chief accountant with a salary in excess of what he was making when he left the chief deputy's job.

But he would have had to take a test to qualify for the job of accountant because it was in the classified state service.

He declined and a federal suit followed. Chief Deputy Attorney General Joseph Reynolds said the case was set for trial in August.

Gov. Brian Sandoval, chairman of the examiners board, questioned if there is a state policy in hiring back the veteran, and staff agreed to investigate.

Of the settlement, $211,000 will go to pay Ingram's premiums to nine years of retirement in the state's system.

Wallin said if the state had won the case in federal district court, the federal government would have taken it to the Ninth Circuit of Appeals and then to the U.S. Supreme Court.

She emphasized she was a strong supporters of veterans.