Our View: Arbitrator's ruling reflects giveaways of the past

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February 10, 2012

The Salem News Fri Feb 10, 2012, 01:39 PM EST

Salem's Kim Driscoll is simply the latest municipal chief executive paying the price for labor giveaways of the past.

More than a third-century ago, someone at City Hall apparently thought it would be no big deal to provide retiring superior officers in the Police Department with a parting gift in the form of benefits they would have earned through the remainder of the fiscal year.

Back then the benefit likely amounted to a few thousand, perhaps even a few hundred, dollars.

And why not? Money was plentiful, there being no Proposition 21/2, and salaries in the public sector were relatively low. Such a bonus might have seemed entirely appropriate for a departing public-safety officer who had provided outstanding service to the residents of the city.

Certainly Capt. John Jodoin, who retired in early July 2010, would fall into that category. But given the fiscal crunch facing her community and the generous pension and benefits to which retiring officers are now entitled, Driscoll chose that moment to end the questionable practice of paying them for holidays and vacation time for which they would be eligible had they still been working.

Taxpayers ought to applaud the mayor's action. But it didn't pass muster with the union or arbitrator.

The latter ruled recently that the city had violated the contract and "past practice," ordering that Jodoin (who had previously collected $48,000 for unused sick and vacation time), be paid an additional $17,000 for the holiday and vacation time he would have earned had he been on the payroll through June 2009.

According to the arbitrator, that had been the practice for more years than anyone could remember, and absent a contractual agreement to change it, it's a benefit to which all retiring officers are still entitled.

Looking on the bright side, the amount in question is but a pittance when compared to the billions of dollars for which all Massachusetts communities are on the hook for pensions owed current and future retirees. Like the Salem Police Department practice of paying retirees for holidays that occur after they've stopped working, this looming pension liability is a vestige of a different era in which municipal officials could give away the store knowing they could always reach into taxpayers' pockets for more.

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