Stratford targeting public pensions

RICHARD WEIZEL rweizel@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated: 01/27/2008 12:31:46 AM EST

STRATFORD — When longtime Police Capt. Gene Vedock, former commander of the midnight shift, retired a year ago after 27 years in the department, his annual pension of $107,000 made him the "poster boy" for angry taxpayers who complain that inflated pension benefits are bankrupting the town.

Vedock is not at the top of the list any more.

That distinction now goes to another former cop, Police Capt Mark DeLieto, commander of the Patrol Division, who retired earlier this month after 27 years and will be collecting $134,525 every year for the rest of his life.

Both DeLieto and Vedock had annual base salaries of $82,000, but have been able to pile up considerable overtime hours during their last 24 months on the job to greatly boost their pension benefits.

That overtime provision has allowed numerous police officers — who dominate the list of top pension benefactors — to collect more than their base salary after retirement.

Citizens, town negotiators, town council leaders and even Mayor James R. Miron say they are determined to change the system.

"We are well aware that this has been a problem and we are in the process of making the necessary changes by negotiating the overtime provision out of the contracts," Miron said. "In fact, it was taken out of the police union contract in 1996 for any new officers hired after that time, and we plan to work on changing the system in the Fire Department, too.

"Having said that, however, as a taxpayer I think it is wrong for any town employee to ever receive more in retirement than they earned while working. It's a system that that must be changed."

It is a system made possible because of old union contracts going back decades that allow police and firefighters to collect a lifetime pension based on a formula that averages total pay, including overtime, during their final two years on the job, in calculating pension benefits.

While the town was able to remove that provision from the police contract in 1996, establishing a new system that determines final pension numbers on average base salary only, officers already in the department were grandfathered so that when they retire their benefits are still calculated under the old system — referred to as Plan A.

About half of the current 100 police officers are still under Plan A, and they will continue to retire and be eligible for the big pension payoffs for decades.

But, critics of the system point out, the overtime provision has still not been negotiated out of the 88-member Fire Department's union contract.

They also point out that 10 of the top 18 pensions go to former police officers, with several former fire officials near the top as well.

"This is not something unique to Stratford, but yes, it has had a major impact on pensions and I don't blame taxpayers for being upset, they have a right to be," said longtime town labor negotiator and consultant David Dunn. "But the message has been heard by the mayor and the administration and I expect that we are going to be pursuing the same changes regarding the fire union's pension as we did with police."

Dunn said, however, that because many police officers and firefighters will be able to use overtime to boost their pension benefits for years, it is up to the police and fire chiefs to try and manage the overtime more efficiently to keep the pensions from skyrocketing.

Police Chief John Buturla said, under the union contract, that isn't easy. He also said major unexpected and prolonged town events such as the 2006 strike at Sikorsky Aircraft required police to work overtime for more than a month, and boosted the pensions of some Plan A retirees.

Buturla, who took over as chief nine months ago, said the department also has 13 vacancies with about a half dozen officers on long-term sick and injury leave, leaving the 111-member department with only 93 officers. He said that requires officers to work overtime on a rotating basis, under the union contract.

"When cannot determine who works overtime based on who is in Plan A or Plan B," Buturla said. "We also cannot compromise the public safety when our officers are needed. We are in the process of filling all 13 vacancies, which will help reduce overtime."

Buturla said while overtime is made available to lower ranking officers first, higher-level officers such as captains have to be included on a rotating basis.

"Captains have a right under the contract to be called for overtime after all other officers have been called, we can't just not use them because they are on Plan A and could retire with a higher pension," the chief said.

But residents like Jim Mihaley and town gadfly George Mulligan have been raising the pension issue at Town Council meetings for months now, and are calling for major concessions by the unions, and management reforms by top police and fire administrators.

"The formulas for determining the defined benefits for pension are not ethical," Mihaley said. They include overtime in the calculation of the pension, and in some cases a person whose salary might be $60,000 or $70,000 can in the last two years earn up to $180,000 that allows for an unscrupulous, unconscionable amount of overtime to be accrued."

Mihaley also pointed out that unlike the private sector, where retirees receive their pension benefits at age 62 or 65 "police and firefighters start collecting when they retire in their 40s or 50s. That's a great deal of money the town has to pay to these people for the rest of their lives.

"The financial impact on the town is devastating," Mihaley said. "These contracts have to be renegotiated so these flagrant abuses can be eliminated. These guys should go down to the Baldwin Senior Center and see how some people in this town don't even have enough money for a cup of coffee."

But Police Union President Shawn Farmer pointed out that the union did made concessions years ago and that the combination of the Sikorsky strike and a major underground construction job over the past two years resulted in a "perfect storm" that required far more overtime than usual.

Farmer, president of Local 407, Stratford Police Union, AFSCME, said the union is not insensitive to taxpayers.

"There were two major concessions the police union made in the last 10 years to make it a more fair system — the first thing is going from a 66 percent down to a 50 percent pension due to an injury on the job, and because of that we've only had two people retire on a disability pension since then," he said. "The other concession was going to the Plan B system that doesn't allow for overtime to be included in calculating pensions for any officer hired after that agreement."

Farmer said as time goes on fewer officers will be eligible for the overtime provision as part of their pensions.

"Eventually, no officer will be eligible," he said. "But it takes time. We understand the concerns of taxpayers, but you can't predict something like a strike at he town's biggest company that required everyone in the department to work overtime for weeks. Those are things you can't anticipate or prevent."

Meanwhile, Mulligan insists more must be done to change a system he believe was established to benefit specific individuals.

"I believe deals were made years ago so that certain people would benefit, and that the newer, younger officers would be intentionally excluded after certain people in the department got their extraordinarily high benefits."