By Chris Cassidy
The Boston Herald
WEYMOUTH, Mass. — The attorney for the former Weymouth mayor who arranged to have himself reinstated as fire chief in a pension-boosting maneuver just days before retiring said his client is simply following the Bay State’s retirement rules and blasted state regulators for wasting tax dollars fighting the case in court.
“He followed the law and now PERAC wants to penalize him for following the law,” attorney Gregory Galvin said of the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, which disputed David Madden’s pension and plans to sue him in Superior Court.
The Herald reported yesterday that shortly before his mayoral term was to end, Madden designated Weymouth’s town solicitor to take over and reinstate him as fire chief so he could retire a few days later as a ‘Group 4' employee and reap a pension some $33,558 more than if he had retired as mayor in a “Group 1" classification. Madden had taken an unpaid leave of absence as fire chief in 1999 to become mayor.
Galvin yesterday said state law entitled Madden to take the unpaid leave and to reassume his fire chief’s position, however briefly, before his January 2008 retirement. He also noted Madden served about 24 years on the Weymouth Fire Department, including six as chief, and objected to any suggestion he held a “no-show job,” even in the brief time he was reinstated as chief after leaving office.
PERAC is battling the pension claim, arguing Madden never actually performed the duties of fire chief when he was briefly reappointed.
By retiring as a fire chief, Madden is eligible for a pension of $79,821 — much more than the $46,263 he’d get retiring as mayor.
Now that a state appeals board has ruled in Madden’s favor, Galvin said the commission is abusing its position by taking the case to Superior Court.
“I don’t know that PERAC wants anything except a dictatorship,” Galvin said. “PERAC dictates what they want and never mind what the law says... PERAC doesn’t mind wasting the money of the commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
But state regulators argue Madden never intended to be an active fire chief after departing as mayor and insisted they’re just doing their job.
“He may see it as a waste of taxpayer money,” said Joseph Connarton, executive director of PERAC. “We see it as our responsibility as the oversight agency of the public pension system.”
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