Wednesday, February 28, 2007
BY STEVE GAMBINI
Copyright © 2007 Republican-American
WATERBURY -- Twenty-one retired police officers, firefighters and their surviving spouses have sued the Retirement Board over reductions to their pension benefits, and more cases are expected in the next several weeks.
The retirees and their widows are contesting the city's decision to reduce their payments under a 1945 City Charter provision that limits benefits to the higher of either a service-related pension or workers' compensation payments.
All the affected people have been receiving service pension payments in addition to payments under a special program for public safety workers suffering from heart conditions.
Over the years, many police personnel and firefighters have applied for service-related pensions after 20 years, and also qualified for the additional benefit because it was presumed that all heart conditions in public safety workers were related to job stress.
The state legislature has since changed the law, but all police and firefighters hired before 1996 still qualify for the benefit.
The city contends that the heart and hypertension payments are legally identical to workers' compensation payments.The city has paid out more than $7 million in the dual benefits over the last 30 years.
"There are some claiming breach of contract, some of them an appeal of the pension board action," said Corporation Counsel Craig Sullivan. "There are a couple of varying theories of liability that the plaintiffs are putting forth."
Six of the seven lawsuits . . . some involve multiple plaintiffs . . . allege the Retirement Board short-circuited the pensioners' due-process rights in the way it made the decision to cut benefits.
The board was presented a resolution by outside attorneys for the city at its December meeting with no advance notice.
The resolution authorizing the reduction in payments was not on the agenda and there was no advance notification to the 39 affected beneficiaries.
At the time, some retirement board members grumbled that the item was being rushed through in order to meet a January deadline.
Police Superintendent Neil O'Leary took it a step further, saying the city's handling of the issue was "disgraceful." He particularly criticized former Chief of Staff Sheila O'Malley for suggesting the administration submitted the resolution at the last minute to avoid tipping off attorney Francis J. Grady of the city's intentions.
Grady now represents 11 of the pensioners in their cases, including Margaret O'Leary, the police chief's mother. She is the widow of a retired city firefighter who died of a heart attack shortly after his retirement in 1989.
Sullivan said he anticipates more suits and expects the court may consolidate the cases in some way to make the docket easier to manage.