Source Pension rule leading Solomon to step down as BPU chief

Speculation that pension rules prompted Lee Solomon to step down as president of the Board of Public Utilities appears to have credibility, according to an NJBIZ review of judicial retirement guidelines.

Speculation that pension rules prompted Lee Solomon to step down as president of the Board of Public Utilities appears to have credibility, according to an NJBIZ review of judicial retirement guidelines.

Chris Christie administration officials this morning said Solomon would announce his resignation from the agency this afternoon as Solomon looks to return to his work as a judge.

Solomon, who formally announced his departure this afternoon in a press conference with Christie, was named to the position in February 2010 by the governor. A source said the move back to the bench is related to pension rules; according to the Judicial Retirement System handbook, a judge who returns to the bench within two years of leaving the court can resume contributions to his pension account. A judge who returns after two years is treated as a new member of the retirement system, according to the handbook.

When asked if Solomon’s pension status as a judge affected his decision to leave the BPU, though, Christie said it did not. Solomon later emphasized his desire to again become a judge.

Rumors of Solomon’s departure had been circulating for some time, and were reported previously in the NJBIZ Grapevine column.

Christie said at the press conference today that he has filed a notice of intent to nominate Solomon to a judgeship on the Superior Court of Camden County.

“Lee has served the people of New Jersey in a tireless and accomplished manner,” Christie said in prepared remarks. “I am pleased that he will continue his strong record of public service by returning to the Superior Court bench.”

“I am thankful for the opportunity and challenge of serving in this unique role, and for the prospect of continuing to serve the people of New Jersey by returning to the state judiciary,” Solomon said.

Naming a successor

Also at the press conference, Christie nominated Robert M. Hanna, director of the Division of Law in the attorney general’s office, to succeed Solomon.

Hanna, a Madison resident, has held his current post since January 2010. From 1990 through 2006, he worked in the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey, in Newark. He was an assistant U.S. attorney under Christie. Hanna initially worked in the office’s civil division before switching to the fraud division in 1997. He later served as chief of the securities and health care fraud unit and criminal health care fraud coordinator.

In 2006, he joined the Newark law firm Gibbons P.C., where he handled white-collar criminal and civil cases, as well as attorney ethics matters.