CLT
UPDATE
Saturday, September 6, 2003
How bad is the state's pork barrel
pension system?
Taking aim at a favorite target, Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday he will try to
block former University of Massachusetts president William M. Bulger's effort to
sweeten his annual six-figure pension by $32,000.
Romney will also ask the Legislature to cap pension benefits for all state employees,
said his communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, who added that Romney will offer a
broad pension overhaul package as part of next year's budget proposal in January.
The Boston Globe
Saturday, September 6, 2003
Romney takes aim at Bulger pension
Will try to block requested increase
Former Belmont selectman William P. Monahan, who was voted out of office last year after he organized a rally and handed local resident Mitt Romney running shoes and told him "run Mitt run," has landed an $80,000 job in the Romney administration that could boost his pension significantly.
Romney, who has railed against patronage politics and pension abuses at the State House, recently appointed Monahan chairman of the state's Civil Service Commission - an agency that the governor has said he wants to abolish, contending it is antiquated....
The 69-year-old Monahan, a veteran of three decades of often divisive Belmont town politics, would be able to collect 80 percent of his $80,000 salary - or $64,000 when he retires - if he serves for three years, according to state pension laws.
If he had drawn a pension based on the annual compensation he received for serving on the board of selectmen, Monahan would have been eligible to collect at most $4,800 a year, according to state pension laws.
The Boston Globe
Friday, August 22, 2003
Romney names supporter to oversee civil service
The man Governor Mitt Romney appointed last month to lead the state's Civil Service Commission abruptly resigned yesterday after the Globe inquired about his past business relationship with Boston Mafia boss Gennaro
Angiulo.
The Boston Globe
Friday, August 29, 2003
New head of civil service resigns
had been asked about a loan from mobster
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Social security is based on "average earnings during a lifetime of work," generally the 35 highest paid years, according to the social security administration. But state pensions are based on the three highest years of pay. Unlike most social security recipients who follow a given career track that slowly raises pay, some public employees can get a huge jump in pension by working just three years in an often unrelated high-pay position.
Wouldn't you like a big pension just so you could stay at the beach and never think about what's happening on the Hill?
Excerpt from Barbara's Latest Column
"The expensive things we learned this summer"
Friday, September 5, 2003
How bad is the state's pork barrel pension system?
It's so bad that even reformer Gov. Romney is using
it, and who can blame him?
In Barbara's latest column, based on the Frank
Phillips' report in the Boston Globe she wrote: "A former Belmont selectman was appointed by Gov. Romney to the job of civil service commissioner, which after three years service would have increased his selectman's pension of $4,800 a year to $64,000 a year. But then it was learned he had a business connection with the Mafia, and that was the end of that."
If Mitt Romney was a conscientious reformer he
could have appointed someone who wasn't taking the job just to pad a
state pension at taxpayer expense. If he really wanted to blow up the
system and start from scratch he could have offered the position to a
private sector reform advocate with no vested interest in perpetuating
big government handouts, someone like ... Carla Howell.
But Romney was just playing by the rules as they
are, which was still a mistake in my opinion.
Nonetheless, at least he's now making an effort to
change those rules. Good luck; Mitt will need it. But without applying
a long-overdue chokehold on this obscene taxpayer-funded money-grab,
"public service" will continue to be a self-service open bar
and grab all you can. The pols and connected friends will continue to
lick the taxpayers' plate clean and, like "entitled" Billy
Bulger, demand more, more, more.
|
|
|
Chip
Ford |
The Boston Globe
Saturday, September 6, 2003
Romney takes aim at Bulger pension
Will try to block requested increase
By Yvonne Abraham and Rick Klein, Globe Staff
Taking aim at a favorite target, Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday he will try to block former University of Massachusetts president William M. Bulger's effort to sweeten his annual six-figure pension by $32,000.
Romney will also ask the Legislature to cap pension benefits for all state employees, said his communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, who added that Romney will offer a broad pension overhaul package as part of next year's budget proposal in January. Fehrnstrom said he could not be more specific about the cap, since the governor has not fleshed out his plan.
The governor's interest came in response to Bulger's attempt to boost his final salary for pension purposes by counting as income about $50,000 from his annuity and state housing allowance. The 69-year-old former UMass president requested the change at the end of last month, and he formally retired Tuesday.
Adding the annuity and annual housing allowance to the pension calculation would boost Bulger's annual pension from about $200,000 a year to roughly $230,000.
"It's an abuse of the system," Romney told reporters yesterday. "I think we can make the bill applicable as of Jan. 1 of this year, to avoid this kind of ... taking of advantage of pensions and the taxpayers' good will."
After taking office in January, the governor attempted to eliminate Bulger's position as president of UMass and put pressure on the former Senate president to resign. When Bulger did step down, Romney criticized Bulger's $960,000 severance deal as "excessive."
Now he is taking on Bulger's bid to boost his pension. The governor vowed to file a bill that would stop such maneuvers, and said he would seek to make it retroactive to Jan. 1 -- directly targetting Bulger. If Romney's change were retroactive, it would return Bulger's pension closer to the $200,000 figure.
Attempts to reach Bulger yesterday were unsuccessful. A spokesman for UMass said he could no longer speak for Bulger.
Some specialists and state lawmakers doubted the bill -- if enacted by the Democrat-controlled Legislature -- could be made retroactive.
In his 35 years as a state representative and state senator, Bulger never made more than $81,000 a year, according to the treasurer's office. But because he spent his final years as a $309,000-a-year president of UMass, his pension will be based on the higher figure.
State pensions are calculated on the salary earned by an employee in the three highest-earning years: Bulger was president of the state university system for seven years.
One idea Romney is exploring would be to link state pensions to the state's median household income. "To receive a pension at a huge multiple of the median income . . . and to do so based upon a few years of high income after many years of more normal income, makes no sense," Romney said. "It's wrong, and we're going to propose that that's changed in a pension reform plan."
Romney's wish to make the rule retroactive seems designed to net Bulger, though in their long public debate, Romney has continually suggested the disagreements between them have not been personal.
"The governor believes the size of the Bulger pension points out the need for reform in our pension system," Fehrnstrom said. "It is an antiquated system, with rules created by insiders to benefit insiders."
Bulger's request to boost his pension currently rests with the five-member State Board of Retirement, chaired by Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill. Lawyers for the board have requested information on Bulger's compensation from UMass, and Cahill's spokeswoman said yesterday that Bulger's housing allowance may not qualify for inclusion in his pension calculation under current law. The board will decide Bulger's pension benefits in October.
Even if Romney's new rule excluding extras from pension payment calculations were to pass muster with legislators, making the rule retroactive to pensions granted after Jan. 1 of this year is "legally questionable," said Karen Sharma, spokeswoman for Cahill.
One of the five members of the State Board of Retirement, Ralph White, said he doesn't think the governor or the Legislature can change pension rules retroactively. But White said he opposes the inclusion of annuity benefits and housing allowances in pension benefits, and said he would vote against Bulger's attempt when the retirement board meets next month.
"Getting an additional benefit for housing allowance or an annuity is really pushing the envelope too far," said White, who is president of the Retired State, County, and Municipal Employees Association of Massachusetts. "It sets a bad precedent for the average wage-earner out there."
Legislators are already considering a bill to exclude extras from calculations of pension benefits. Representative Cory Atkins proposed legislation last year to exclude housing allowances and cars from the equations. Atkins, a Concord Democrat, said the bill would move slowly, however.
"Any bill that affects compensation goes through a lot of scrutiny, as it should," she said. "We have lots of complicated bargaining agreements."
There was strong reaction among legislators and union officials to Romney's suggestion of a pension cap yesterday. They accused the governor of running the state by press release, throwing out ill-formed ideas without thinking through their implications.
"This governor is very quick ... to make it look like he's doing good things for public," said Representative Robert M. Koczera, a New Bedford Democrat who is House chairman of the Public Service Committee. "And a lot of it is just somewhat reckless comments that are very cynical towards public employees."
Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Robert J. Haynes said Romney's proposal "takes aim at working people."
"A fabulously wealthy person like Mitt Romney is the last person who should complain about inflated retirements," said Haynes. "What's he going to do if some social worker becomes a commissioner after years of dedicated service. Are we going to penalize them because they work hard, learn their craft, and get promoted?"
A cap would probably face stiff opposition on Beacon Hill, and Sharma said capping pension benefits would also raise thorny questions regarding caps for disability payments and other benefits.
Return to
top
The Boston Globe
Friday, August 22, 2003
Romney names supporter to oversee civil service
By Frank Phillips
Former Belmont selectman William P. Monahan, who was voted out of office last year after he organized a rally and handed local resident Mitt Romney running shoes and told him "run Mitt run," has landed an $80,000 job in the Romney administration that could boost his pension significantly.
Romney, who has railed against patronage politics and pension abuses at the State House, recently appointed Monahan chairman of the state's Civil Service Commission - an agency that the governor has said he wants to abolish, contending it is antiquated.
Romney's press secretary, Shawn Feddeman, said the governor chose Monahan because of his 24 years of experience serving on the Belmont Board of Selectmen. She said Monahan's political activities for Romney - he helped Romney in his 1994 US Senate race, as well as last year's gubernatorial race - played no role in the selection. She said his hiring did not violate the governor's vow to put an end to political hirings on Beacon Hill.
"As a former local official, Mr. Monahan is uniquely qualified to lead the commission as he understands the issues cities and towns face around civil service," Feddeman said. "He was selected on his merits and his merits only ... he was only hired as chair of the civil service commission after an extensive application process."
Feddeman also said Monahan, a lawyer with a small practice in Cambridge, has agreed to help work toward Romney's goal of dismantling the civil service system. The Legislature this year rejected Romney's proposal to disband civil service.
Monahan did not return calls made to his home and office yesterday.
The 69-year-old Monahan, a veteran of three decades of often divisive Belmont town politics, would be able to collect 80 percent of his $80,000 salary - or $64,000 when he retires - if he serves for three years, according to state pension laws.
If he had drawn a pension based on the annual compensation he received for serving on the board of selectmen, Monahan would have been eligible to collect at most $4,800 a year, according to state pension laws. In Belmont, the job of board chairman, a post he had held, pays $6,000 while other members get $4,000 a year.
State pensions are based on a percentage of a retiree's highest three years of salary. The percentage is calculated by the years of service, but is no more than 80 percent.
Monahan, a Republican, lost his bid for another selectman's term in April 2002, just days following a rally he organized that welcomed Romney back to Belmont after the multimilionaire spent three years in Salt Lake City, running the Winter Olympics.
The event, which had the strong appearance of a political rally to boost Romney's gubernatorial ambitions, cost the town $1,200 in police overtime and other services. A banner reading "Run Mitt Run" was hung from a town building during the snowy welcome-home event. The next day, Romney declared he would run for governor.
Most local observers agree that the event, with its political overtones, contributed to Monahan's defeat. Monahan's sometimes gruff, often conservative style had worn down his popularity in the upscale town, which has over the years increasingly voted for liberal Democrats.
Monahan said later he regretted that his plans for a homecoming for somebody he felt was a local hero had been interpreted as a political rally. He later became involved in Romney's campaign for governor as a volunteer.
Monahan, as a selectman, was also a strong supporter of one of Romney's strong interests - the Mormon Church's efforts to build a controversial temple along Route 2.
Romney, a leader in the Mormon Church, was a key figure in helping the church's project make it way through the thickets of town politics. A vocal, well financed neighborhood opposition pressed the selectmen and other town officials to block the project. The issue went to the Supreme Judicial Court, which cleared the way for construction that was completed in 2000.
In a Globe interview last year after his defeat, Monahan talked of how rough the political wars could be in that genteel suburb of Boston. He said that some of the legendary Boston political bosses like James Michael Curley and Martin Lomasney would be no match for the people who run Belmont or any Massachusetts town.
"If they went in the back room with the men who have been running this town, and most towns like it, for the past 100 years ... [they] would come out without their pants on," Monahan said.
Return to
top
The Boston Globe
Friday, August 29, 2003
New head of civil service resigns
had been asked about a loan from mobster
By Frank Phillips
The man Governor Mitt Romney appointed last month to lead the state's Civil Service Commission abruptly resigned yesterday after the Globe inquired about his past business relationship with Boston Mafia boss Gennaro Angiulo.
William P. Monahan, a former Belmont selectman and political ally of Romney's, quit the $80,000 position as chairman of the commission late yesterday afternoon. The Globe had inquired about a bar in Boston's theater district that Monahan and a partner purchased in 1980 with a $180,000, 10-year loan from Angiulo.
Romney's press secretary, Shawn Feddeman, said the governor did not know of Monahan's past business relationship with Angiulo when he appointed him to the post in July.
"Monahan has submitted his resignation, and the governor has accepted it," Feddeman said. She would not comment further.
She said a background check had not uncovered Monahan's dealings with the Mafia leader, although a Belmont newspaper reported them in 1992.
Monahan, in an interview yesterday, said his decade-long business relationship with Angiulo and his brothers was "arm's length," but one which he regretted. He said he was well-aware of Angiulo's position as a top Boston gangster at the time.
"It was bad judgment. No serious harm came of it, but I never should have gotten involved in the thing," Monahan told the Globe.
Records at the Boston Licensing Commission list Monahan as a 25 percent owner of 253 Tremont Street Realty Trust, which holds the title to the property and the liquor license to operate Dominic's Bar and Restaurant.
Monahan contested those records, saying he is no longer an owner of the property and the business. "That is a gross error," he said, saying he sold his interest in the early 1990s.
Monahan and Dominic Paulo purchased the property in December 1980 from Huntington Realty Trust, Angiulo's family real estate company. The two also purchased a liquor license for the property for $30,000.
Monahan and Paulo made a down payment of $80,000 when they purchased the bar. They received a mortgage from the Angiulos for $180,000 for the rest of the purchase price.
The mortgage was discharged in July 1993, according to records at the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds. Monahan said he believed that at that time, he sold his shares in the business to Paulo.
Angiulo, who has been described by federal prosecutors as a ruthless crime figure, was convicted of racketeering charges in 1986. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. A year later he was sentenced to life in prison on state charges for ordering the murder of a rival gangster.
Paulo, testifying during Angiulo's racketeering trial, said his and Monahan's purchase of the bar was completed at Angiulo's North End headquarters at 98 Prince St. Paulo died last November, according to Monahan.
Yesterday, Monahan sharply disputed that version of the sale, saying the transactions took place at the Suffolk Registry of Deeds at his insistence.
"That's a figment of his imagination," he said. "I insisted on it taking place at the registry. It was a unique incident. I wanted to make certain I dotted all the i's and cross the t's. I was a bit nervous."
Monahan's dealings with the Angiulos were first revealed in an article in the weekly Belmont Citizen newspaper in 1992, after his defeat in a bitter election fight against Democrat state Representative Anne M. Paulsen of Belmont. But his comments yesterday to the Globe were his first public statements concerning the details of the business deal.
The transaction records show that Paulo and Monahan both signed the mortgage, with Angiulo's lawyer, William J. Cintolo, acting as a notary. According to Paulo's testimony in court, the transaction took place in the North End, and the location was chosen because "there was wine to wish me luck."
At the trial, federal prosecutors charged that the five Angiulo brothers used their two real estate firms, including Huntington Realty, as fronts for lucrative gambling and loan shark operations and to hide other crime activities.
In July, Romney appointed Monahan to head the civil service commission, the state agency that hears and decides appeals of personnel decisions involving those public employees under civil service protection in Massachusetts. The governor has called the agency antiquated and suggested it should be abolished.
Monahan served 24 years on the Belmont board of selectmen until he was voted out of office last year, weeks after he had organized a controversial rally welcoming Romney, a Belmont resident and aspiring gubernatorial candidate, back to town after running the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The event came under heavy criticism because public resources were used to pay for the event that critics said was a political rally for Romney.
As a selectman, Monahan assisted Mormon Church leaders, including Romney, shepherd a proposal to build a temple through a torrent of local, well-financed opposition. A Republican, he also supported and worked for Romney's campaign for the US Senate in 1994.
Romney, as a candidate last year and as governor, has vowed to clean up what he calls political patronage and pension abuse on Beacon Hill. His aides said Monahan was selected from an "extensive application process" and that his appointment did not violate the governor's vows to end political hirings.
The aides said that Monahan's 24 years as a selectman left him qualified for the position.
Globe correspondent Donovan Slack contributed to this report.
Return to
top
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or
payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this
information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For
more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
|