Providence - More Double Pensions for Elected Officials
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Five former Providence council members are hoping to collect on their double pensions from the city this week.
Like employees, council members earn regular city pensions. But, thanks to a second pension afforded to only elected officials, four of the five former council members are nearly doubling what they would otherwise earn from the city.
For example, former councilwoman Balbina A. Young was due to receive an annual regular city pension of $5,726, but, thanks to the elected official pension of $5,948, her total annual retirement pay from the city will be $11,674. (See chart.)
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Two of the former council members—Josephine DiRuzzo and John J. Lombardi—are due to receive an additional third pension from Local 1033 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America.
Another former councilman who served in the 1970s also is on the agenda for Wednesday’s retirement board meeting—Laurence Flynn, who, unlike the other four council members, went on to become a longtime city employee as the head of the Board of Canvassers.
In addition to 26 years with the board, Flynn logged in eight on the council—just enough to get the second council pension. Plus, those eight years were added to his 26 as a city employee in calculating his regular city pension. As a result, he will earn $20,690 a year—plus $2,799.96 annually from his elected official pension. (Click here to read the original GoLocalProv report on Flynn.)
Like Lombardi and DiRuzzo, Flynn also is eligible for the Local 1033 pension.
That leaves two retiring council members who aren't getting the union pension: Young and Peter S. Mancini, who was president of the council. They were elected after the benefit was cut for council members.
Several of their successors have even declined the second elected official pension, including David Salvatore, who replaced Mancini, and Sabina Matos, who defeated DiRuzzo in the primary. Newly elected councilman Sam Zurier has also declined the benefit.
Retirement board member: ‘I’m sorry that’s the way it is’
Retirement board member Carla Dowben said she doesn’t like the idea of officials receiving two pensions for one job. “Everybody seems to do it, not just little Rhode Island. It’s an old-fashioned thing,” Dowben told GoLocalProv. “I’m sorry that’s the way it is. I wish it wasn’t because we’ve got enough people out of work who need the money.”
But the retirement board—which will review the pension applications this Wednesday—does not have the authority to make broad decisions about whether those second pensions are justified. Those are set by city ordinance, which the board is charged with merely enforcing. Major reform—like an amendment to the ordinance—would have to come from the council.
The issue of double—even triple pensions in some instances—was raised in the mayoral election last year that pitted Lombardi against then-state Rep Steven Costantino and Angel Taveras in the Democratic primary. After taking office, Taveras announced that he too was not taking the elected official pension.
Lombardi, for one, says he’s earned it. “I put in between 30 and 50 hours a week … It’s not a 9 to 5 job. It’s seven days a week—24 and 7,” Lombardi said. “I most certainly do think I’ve earned it. I think I’ve paid my dues to the City of Providence and the taxpayers in more ways than one.”
Councilman proposes eliminating second pension
In addition to declining the benefit for himself, Salvatore has said he intends on proposing an ordinance to strip the benefit for all council members. Salvatore has said he doesn’t “support the idea of public officials or elected Council members seeking to receive special pension benefits at a time when the City is already struggling to pay such benefits to rank-and-file employees.”
Asked whether he favors keeping the elected official pension, Lombardi said he believes each council member should decide for themselves whether they should opt in or out of it.
Lombardi also said he supported eliminating the Local 1033 pension for council members, because it presented a conflict of interest for council members when they were voting on contracts with the union. “It just didn’t seem right to me, that’s all,” Lombardi said. He also noted that he declined to buy about nine years of service he turned in at the Recreation Department before he was elected to the council in the early 1980s.
Young and DiRuzzo did not respond to requests for comment yesterday and Mancini could not be reached for comment.
How the elected official pension is calculated
The elected official pension is available for a council member who has served at least eight years—two years less than the ten necessary for regular benefits. The benefit is calculated at the rate of $350 for each year serviced—capped at 20 years. (Click here to read the ordinance.)
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