Narragansett Pension Practices-The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same

Narragansett rewards itself for cheating pension fund

After years of deceptive short funding the pension fund, Town officials have taken it to a new low. After much fanfare and hoopla, Town officials boast how they are funding the pension fund at 80% of what they owe in this fiscal year at the expense of other projects. They only did this due to State Law forcing compliance. Unfortunately, creatively “cooking the books” was concealed from employees and taxpayers alike resulting in huge shortfalls. Now a new shell game has surfaced. While monies are budgeted to cover existing pensions and for investments of future pension costs of present employees, the Town is now paying itself back for previous years not properly funded. How many years this goes back has not been revealed. For years the Town did not even sufficiently fund what was paid out in pensions to the tune of $2 million plus including monies active employees contributed on a weekly basis. Why wasn’t that practice made public? Simple, the underfunding game by Town officials would have been exposed years ago and stopped.

This backcharging, money grab of the Pension Fund money by Town Administrators is unacceptable and in essence rewarding the Town for years of fiscal irresponsibility and cover up. Had this been in the private sector, it would have been a criminal matter a la Bernie Madoff. This is just the latest method of cheating the Pension Fund. Such a practice is what is “unsustainable”, not the pension plan. As the Pension Fund was intentionally underfunded in previous years, the Town should make good on their previous misdeeds by transferring funds from the Town reserve fund and/or Council contingency, not money targeted for investment. The new Town Council should direct the Administration to invest money above what is paid out in benefits including current employee contributions instead of recycling it back into the General Fund for previous years. Where is that money destined; a slush fund or a pet project? The Council should also request a new auditing firm with forensic capabilities. The public has the right to know what the Town owes to what account instead of burying years of misdeeds with good or deceptive reports. Those previous reports and audits should be checked for irregularities and action taken if necessary. It seems all those accounting awards were a sham. True transparency without deception needs to be the rule, not the exception.

One can only wonder if the Finance Committee which likes to blame retirees and current employees for deficits is in on this scheme. Their silence speaks volumes either through playing along as usual in this shameful scandal or not having access to the information. All this deception and backroom accounting needs to change. Employees, retirees, and taxpayers are not forensic accountants. The new Town Council “in the spirit of openness” has the power to move forward to end cooking the books and move the Town forward in a positive direction.

Ret. Capt. Daniel Leighton

Narragansett Fire