By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — Police and firefighters are bracing for a flurry of retirements after Gov. Donald Carcieri proposed pension rollbacks for state and municipal workers who retire after April 1 as part of his plan to eliminate a $357 million state budget deficit Wednesday.

Coupled with possible layoffs driven by another facet of Carcieri's plan — the elimination of some $3.8 million in local aid — the manpower reductions could cripple the police department, said Detective Sgt. John Scully, president of Local 404 of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers.
“Right now we have something like 23 police officers who are eligible to retire,” said Scully. “I would say you're going to see 95 percent of those leave. It's going to force them out.”
Mayor Susan D. Menard has already vowed to seek the layoffs of some 30 police officers and 45 firefighters if their unions do no make deep concessions in wages and benefits.
Scully said he fears that even if there are numerous retirements, it will spare few layoffs because new retirees will have sizable short-term payouts coming to them.
Scully said it was not inconceivable that the combined effects of layoffs and retirements could drive down the manpower of the force to less than half its normal 101-member strength.
Under such a scenario, how the department would handle such basics as scheduling and overtime, let alone crime-prevention, is hard to conceive, he said.
“I would say we're preparing for the worst,” said Scully.
Fire Lt. Steven Reilly, president of International Association of Firefighters, said there may be as many as 30 firefighters who could retire immediately with some type of pension. Reilly seemed less certain than Scully that many of them would do so, but he couldn't rule it out, either, in view of the governor's proposals.
It's very possible,” he said, “but I can't really speculate on who or how many.”
Fire Chief Kenneth Finlay said that most firefighters have historically stayed on well past their minimum retirement age. While police officers can apply their skills in second careers as insurance investigators, private detectives and security guards, firefighters have fewer opportunities in retirement, so they continue working.
But Finlay said the conventional wisdom is in limbo after Carcieri's proposed retirement reforms.
“This changes the picture dramatically for a lot of people,” said Finlay. “There is going to be a significant financial impact on a lot of people.
A major pillar of Carcieri's deficit avoidance plan calls for the imposition of a minimum retirement age of 59 and the elimination of cost of living increases to future municipal and state retirees who leave after April 1. As long as the General Assembly passes legislation to enforce the changes – and it's still unclear if it will - those who retire after the deadline would have their pensions capped instead of receiving an annual three percent adjustment for inflation.
Police officers and firefighters can now retire at any age after 20 years of service, but Carcieri's proposal also raises the specter of public safety officers staying on the job as long as workers in traditional civilian careers before they can collect a pension.
Mayor Menard said Thursday that the governor's deficit avoidance plan ends up imposing deeper cuts on the city than she had been expecting. In addition to $3.2 million in promised municipal aid that Menard had conservatively – and accurately – guessed would be entirely wiped out, another $600,000 in education aid also disappeared.
Combined with an existing deficit of slightly more than $1 million in the School Department, Menard said the city is now looking at somehow trying to fill a revenue gap nudging the $5 million mark.
Until now Menard had been negotiating concessions with the four major public employees unions  whose members make up the workforce for all police, fire and municipal departments in attempts to close the budget hole. Without the concessions, Menard said she would be compelled to issue layoff notices for some 75 police officers and firefighters.
In view of the governor's proposals, Menard said she is moving forward with those plans. Although there's been some progress in negotiations, Menard said, “We have no choice.”
Progress may be a matter of perspective, however. Talks with the IBPO have essentially stalled, but Scully said he is ready to return to the bargaining table now that the governor's plan is public. Reilly, meanwhile, said the mayor has rejected the IAFF's proposals and she no longer seems interested in talking to the union.
“She's not entertaining any of our proposals,” he said. “It appears she'd rather just lay off the members.”
Like other mayors and town administrators, Menard criticized the governor for bragging about proposing a deficit avoidance plan without any increases in sales or income taxes. At the same time the governor also laments that municipal property taxes are working overtime to pay for bloated education and fire departments, yet one inevitable impact of his plan will be to force municipalities to increase property taxes, Menard said.
As devastating as the governor's proposed cuts appear, many officials, including Menard – were still looking for clarification on specifics Thursday and were unable to predict their next step. As Finlay put it, “I'd rather be fighting a raging mill fire. Then at least I'd know what I was doing.”
Councilman John Ward said he was trying to garner support among fellow councilors for a joint meeting with members of the city's legislative delegation. Ward said he wants to get a sense of how lawmakers are going to react to Carcieri's proposals and whether they will do so soon enough to help the city before the end of the fiscal year.
“That's the problem,” he said. “Nobody's got enough information to make any comment on it.. We have many more questions than we have answers right now.”
School Committee Chairman Marc Dubois said the School Department has already made significant cuts in attempts to stanch its share of the deficit. He praised members of the Woonsocket Teachers Guild for accepting a five-year deferral of pay raises – concessions that went a long way toward closing the gap.
But Dubois said he is hard pressed to say where, at this point, the School Department will find another $600,000 worth of savings in its budget. Asking the teachers unions for more concessions is not out of the question, he said.
“It's certainly something we may have to explore,” he said. “We're going to have to put everything on the table now and take a look at it.”