Many staffers leaving before proposed pay cuts, pension changes take effect

By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — Workers from all walks of city government continue to tender retirement notices rather than risk getting hit with deep cuts in wages and benefits that could kick in as early as next Friday.

Personnel Director Owen Bebeau said 11 workers filed retirement papers as of Friday, including six from the Police Department, one from the Fire Department and four from City Hall. Though substantially more have made inquiries about retiring, it’s impossible to say how many will follow through before rollbacks in wages and benefits are slated to take effect.
“We’ve had a number of inquiries from various individuals,” said Bebeau. “Whether that equates into retirees or not, we don’t know. We’re watching to see what happens.”
The first bomb most employees are trying to avoid is an across-the-board pay cut of 5 percent that could take effect Feb. 1. Mayor Susan D. Menard’s administration has also proposed health care co-pays of 25 percent beginning March 1, and the General Assembly is considering other pension rollbacks proposed by Gov. Donald Carcieri, including elimination of annual cost of living increases, or COLAS, and a new minimum eligibility age of 59.
Some workers who are on the fence about retiring may be holding back to see whether Menard or the City Council modifies the proposed rollbacks at the city level. Even as the City Council is poised to vote on the proposed rollbacks Monday night, Menard has continued to negotiate with members of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, the International Association of Firefighters and Council 94, whose 115 or so members work all kinds of city jobs.
The City Council also met with members of the police and fire unions this week after putting off a vote on the proposed rollbacks on Jan. 20. Those meetings were held in executive session and City Council President Leo T. Fontaine has declined to say whether they might prompt the panel to modify the proposed rollbacks.
But some who are walking out the door don’t see much chance that the marathon talks that have been going on for weeks now will stave off the inevitable crunch in pension benefits. They don’t necessarily want to retire, but they feel forced to if they want to preserve the benefits they have.
“I would have liked to have done 30 years with the police department,” said Lt. David Crepeau. Instead, at the age of 50, Crepeau handed his retirement papers at the personnel department this week after just 26 years on the job.
Like Crepeau, some who are walking are among the most experienced employees in city government — people like Linda Fontaine, who recently retired from her job as manager of the Board of Canvassers.
City Clerk Pauline Payeur, who has worked at City Hall for over 40 years, says she’s still wavering — along with other City Hall veterans. But there is one factor working in favor of keeping them on the job. She says she recently learned that the state-proposed elimination of the annual 3 percent pension COLAs would not affect
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workers on the municipal side of government.
The rollbacks proposed by the city are just part of Menard’s plan to plug a $3.6 million budget hole caused by Gov. Donald Carcieri’s mid-year cut of $55 million in general revenue sharing to cities and towns. She also wants a new, $96-a-year trash collection fee from every residential unit in the city, the elimination of about 13 jobs, the abolition of minimum manning on the Fire Department and other benefit givebacks.
Menard’s trump card, however, may be the threat of layoffs. She says if employees don’t accept voluntary concessions, the city will run out of money to make payroll by March 1. In the most recent analysis publicly floated by the administration, the jobs of some 35 police officers and 40 firefighters were at risk – figures union leaders say raise serious questions about public safety.
Union leaders have talked about going to court for an injunction to stop the city from making cuts in wages and benefits without their assent. But Menard’s hand – and that of many other elected officials who are in similar straits – may have just been strengthened Thursday in a bellwether case involving teachers and the School Committee in East Providence.
In a move that surprised some union officials, Superior Court Judge Mark A. Pfeiffer refused to grant the East Providence Teachers Association an injunction blocking officials from imposing a 5 percent wage cut and first-time health care co-pays of 20 percent. East Providence schools officials had made those cuts unilaterally - that is, without a multi-party agreement ironed out in collective bargaining.
Pfeiffer said the union had failed to show that the teachers would suffer “irreparable harm” as a result of the cuts – the standard for granting an injunction. The benefits were still in place – they were just costing teachers more, the judge said. While Pfeiffer was sympathetic to the loss of wages, he said the proper forum to air the dispute was the state Labor Relations Board.