Westport’s First Selectman, Gordon Joseloff, recently withdrew his request to join the town’s pension plan.

When elected for his first term in 2005, Joseloff was able to opt out of the pension plan because the Non-Union Supervisory Pension is only mandatory for employees less than 60 years of age.

“I had been told when I was elected that I could join if and when I had five years of service,” Joseloff said.

Requesting to join the town pension plan after his fifth, going on sixth, year as Westport’s First Selectman was more complicated than initially expected. Joseloff said he received bad advice.

If Joseloff were to be part of the town pension plan, he’d have to buy back into it, paying for the five years he was not contributing, which amounts to approximately 24,000 dollars.

A pension plan serves the purpose of a retirement fund, putting money aside annually to save up.

“Clearly the Pension Board was conflicted in that there was no explicit provision for my joining now that I would be vested,” Joseloff said.

As Joseloff faces legal, as well as conflict of interest questions, controversy has also risen due to the fact that the same funds used for pension plans are used to fund the town’s budget.

“Contrary to some media reports, it is not unprecedented for a First Selectman to be in a town pension plan…currently there are three former First Selectmen enrolled in the Non-Union Supervisory Pension Plan, having completed the required years of service to be vested,” Joseloff said.

Joseloff had previously received advice intimating that after showing years of service, he would be vested and buying back into the pension plan would be possible. However, Joseloff will now not be a part of the town’s pension plan, his request raised questions of why he is joining now after declining when initially elected.