Lynch Blasts Cicilline on Pension Crisis
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Congressional candidate Bill Lynch yesterday took aim at his primary opponent, Providence Mayor David Cicilline, for failing to reform the city’s beleaguered pension system
“I think it’s unfortunate that Mayor Cicilline had seven and a half years to implement pension reform in Providence yet failed to do so and that his only response after seven and a half years as mayor is to blame his predecessors,” said Bill Fischer, a Lynch spokesman. "It’s just a complete lack of leadership on his part.”
Lynch’s comments came after a GoLocalProv investigation found that the top 20 highest-paid pensioners in Providence had roughly tripled their retirement income over 20 years, thanks to a 5 to 6 percent compounded cost of living increase. Those retirees—all firefighters and police officers—had retired before Cicilline took office. But the new contract his administration has negotiated with the firefighters includes another compounded cost of living increase, set at 3 percent.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFischer wondered why it had taken Cicilline seven and a half years to negotiate a contract—and he also questioned the timing of the deal, coming just in time for Cicilline’s run for Congress “The coincidence and the timing should not be lost on the taxpayers of Providence and the voters in the First Congressional District,” Fischer said.
He said Cicilline had shown a lack of leadership in failing to negotiate with firefighters for most of his time in office. “The lack of leadership is not what we need down in Congress right now,” he said.
Fischer said the Lynch campaign plans on making an issue out of Cicilline’s record as Providence mayor in the weeks that remain until the September 14 primary. But his other two Democratic primary opponents—David Segal and Anthony Gemma—both gave Cicilline a pass yesterday, as did Republican candidate John Loughlin.
Cicilline Says He Proposed Serious Reforms
In a statement, Cicilline blamed the approximately $800 million unfunded pension liability on his predecessors who were responsible for granting the 5 to 6 percent COLAs. He said that reforming the system had been an “urgent priority” for his administration.
In 2006, the Mayor’s Pension Study Committee recommended a series of changes, according to spokeswoman Karen Watts. Those included: reducing a disability pension for a retiree who earns outside income, reducing the benefit for early retirees, and passing an ordinance that would allow defined contribution plans, which are similar to 401(k)s.
Watts said the city council finance committee did not accept all of those recommendations, only adopting the disability reduction for future retirees. She said the council did not reduce the benefit for all early retirees and did not pass the proposed ordinance.
In 2009, the Mayor came back with two other recommendations: a requirement that firefighters and police officers work for 25 years before retiring, and cutting the maximum amount of a disability pension.
The council only acted on one of those—requiring that police and firefighters work 23 years before they can retire, according to Watts.
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