Woonsocket Refuses to Release Disability Pension Records
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
The City of Woonsocket is refusing to release the disability records for Salvatore Lombardi, a former police officer who is out on a disability pension and now works as the state pension fraud investigator—with a focus on disability pensions.
GoLocalProv has submitted a public records request for the information, which Woonsocket has denied. Mayor Leo Fontaine said his hands were tied by state law. “We can’t release anything as it relates to his medical condition at all,” Fontaine said. “It’s very clear under state law that’s the stuff that’s prohibited.”
‘Secrets in state government’
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe state retirement board also won’t say what Lombardi’s disability is—but it insists that it does not affect his ability to do his job, which involves field work. Lombardi has held the position for 23 years and in the last nine years alone, he has worked on only a dozen cases of alleged fraud—none of which have been brought to prosecution.
“It’s always a question when somebody is able to work—but they’re not working at the job where they got the disability pension,” said Barbara Meagher Smith, the president of Access Rhode Island and an associate professor of journalism at the University of Rhode Island. “He has a high-profile job investigating the pension wrongdoing of other people. In order for him to have credibility in his job it’s worthwhile for the public to know what his disability was.”
“There’s a lot of secrets in state government and that’s why public records are not public,” Smith added. “Disability pensions are part of the secret.”
City Official: Disability pensions ‘cause for concern’
The law Fontaine cites indeed does not say that local and state government are obligated to release medical information about employees—but it doesn’t bar them from doing so either.
Most communities, however, won’t do more than what the law requires, Smith said. “The cities and towns are going to go by the letter of the law or they are going to be wrong to preserve the status quo,” she said. “They’re going to err on the side of not giving out the information.”
Several cities contacted by GoLocalProv—Cranston, Providence, and Warwick—either said they could not release the information or would have to research the law before responding. The exception appears to be Johnston, which has previously released to GoLocalProv the reason a former fire chief went out on a disability pension.
In Warwick, Personnel Director Oscar Shelton said he wished he could open up disability pension records to the public. “Disability pensions are something that need to be looked at by every community in the state,” Shelton said. “It’s a cause for concern.”
Shelton said he could only disclose whether a disability was related to the job or not. The same policy holds true for the state employees retirement system, according to spokesman Dave Layman.
Fontaine ‘tough to say no’
Smith said it would be helpful to the public to at least know what kind of a disability a public employee has—such as whether it’s physical or mental. But Fontaine wouldn’t even reveal that, even though he conceded the public might demand such information. “Absolutely. I understand that, but at the same time they have to understand the constraint I have under the law,” Fontaine said. “It’s kind of tough for me to say no. I feel we should disclose as much as we can.”
Fontaine said there has to be some way to restore public confidence in the disability pension system—but he wasn’t sure specifically how to do that given what he says are the constraints of the law.
Since taking office, Fontaine said the city has been reviewing disability pensions and cases of employees who are on injured on duty status. So far, no benefits have been cut. “I don’t even want to get into the details yet,” Fontaine said.
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