How pols hide their compensation

(Submitted by John Feeney)

Whenever we the people try to exercise some control over the compensation of those who lead our governmental and business organizations, the officials we are trying to control show extraordinary cleverness at finding ways around the limits we try to set.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on how chief executives have managed to turn stock options – which were designed to align the interests of stockholders and management – into a feeding trough for themselves, their board members and their top executives, at the expense of stockholders.

Examples of the same sort of chicanery in government have been reported recently in the Cape Cod Times. The Times tells us that some state officials are manipulating state pension rules to pad their retirements. Former State Senator and UMASS president Billy Bulger, for example, got his perks (like housing allowance) added to his salary and raised his pension by $29,000 t(o $196,000 a year.

Now, the Times tells us, former Representatives Thomas George of Yarmouth and Marie Parente are trying to get travel and office allowances calculated as part of their compensation so they can get thousands of dollars per year added to their pensions. (George has already managed to get credit for years of service as town moderator, boosting his pension by about $24,000 a year.)

One such manipulation that has yet to make the news as far as I can see is the attempt by Sandwich selectmen to grant some of them lifelong health benefits despite the vote of Sandwich Town Meeting.

At the town meeting last spring, the voters of Sandwich voted to stop giving paid health insurance to town officials who work part time. This article had to be submitted to the state legislature as a home rule petition, which took several months.

The legislature passed the home rule petition, making it law in Sandwich, but the Selectmen decided that it needed some interpretation. They submitted it to attorneys to decide whether or not it covered current selectmen.

After asking Representative Jeff Perry (who was not at Town Meeting when the vote was taken according to records of Town Clerk’s office), what he felt the legislature was voting on, the lawyers (who were paid by the selectmen out of town funds for their opinion) decided that the bill did not apply to current selectmen. In the end this will probably give lifetime benefits to one Selectman elected just after Town Meeting passed this petition and will do the same for two more selectmen if they get reelected this year.

This legal opinion could cost the town more than one million dollars per individual over the lifetime of those eligible and their spouses! Not bad for a $1,500 a year job and six years of service.

I wrote the petition on which the town voted and I can assure you that I intended to have it apply to current selectmen. Nothing that was said at town meeting contradicted that interpretation. But no one asked me. Instead they relied on the testimony of someone who was not present!

There is no easy way to stop this sort of thing. Those who benefit are very clever at hiding the benefits they receive. My suggestion is that we switch all state, city and town employees to a “defined contribution” plan for both pensions and health insurance.

A defined contribution system would do two things. It would make it much easier for taxpayers to know how much they are giving to their elected officials and employees, and it would limit our obligations to the defined contribution.

John Feeney is the former Chair of the Finance Committee in Sandwich

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