Pension, medical benefits revoked for convicted Pa. city administrator

WILLIAMSPORT — A convicted former Williamsport city administrator no longer will receive any benefits from the city.

The city’s Officers’ and Employees’ Pension Board, following a 45-minute executive session on Wednesday, revoked the pension of William E. Nichols Jr. and required him to pay back $33,356 that he has received since being sentenced May 5 in Harrisburg.

Revoking his pension means Nichols is also not entitled to medical benefits from the city, and he must repay those costs incurred since May.

Revocation of Nichols’ pension, which was approved by a 6-1 vote, does not affect the benefits he received before his sentencing. The lone no vote came from William Schweikart, a retired public works employee.

The Public Pension Forfeiture Act permits pension revocation for a felony conviction.

Nichols pleaded guilty in Dauphin County court to felony charges of theft by deception and tampering with public records brought by the state attorney general’s office.

Dauphin County President Judge Scott A. Evans placed him on probation for a year but did not order restitution. During the sentencing hearing, he thanked him for his service to the city, which irked some Williamsport officials.

Nichols, 72, was general manager of River Valley Transit (RVT), then a department of the city, for 42 years, during which he also served a four-year stint as city finance director.

The state attorney general’s office, when it filed charges, and Evans, during sentencing, pointed out Nichols did not benefit personally from comingling funds and misappropriating grant dollars from 2013 to 2020.

As a result of investigations into Nichols, the city is obligated to repay the Federal Transit Administration $1.4 million that the agency said was spent on unauthorized uses.

Mayor Derek Slaughter and Nichols did not get along, and the mayor fired him at the start of his first term in office in January 2020.

A statewide grand jury’s presentment that led to the charges found the city allowed Nichols to serve in multiple roles over such a long period that, in essence, he was his own boss with little effective oversight.

The grand jury found Nichols, who served eight mayors:

• Engaged in a course of conduct designed to prevent the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation from discovering through RVT that he was diverting public funds for improper uses.
• Paid two city employees in salary or bonuses a total of $133,600 between 2013 and 2019 for work they did not do for the Endless Mountains Transportation Authority, which RVT managed.
• Comingled budgets, finances, accounting, and bookkeeping among entities over several decades with little consistent oversight.
• Illegally used public money to help fund the Hiawatha, a simulated paddle wheeler on the Susquehanna River.
• Solicited donations for the Hiawatha from nearly every vendor and business with whom he dealt.
• Reported misleading expense and revenue information to PennDOT to create the inaccurate appearance transfers were for actual transactions instead of merely ledger entries.

Nichols’ saga is not over because the pension board is investigating whether it can seek money from what he paid into the pension fund.

His attorney, Helen A. Stolinas, argued that only a court could order restitution, and Evans did not do so.

Pension board solicitor Justin Houser said he believes the law permits repayment of misappropriated funds.

Online court records show Nichols has paid the $1,668 in costs and fees assessed in Dauphin County.