Post by Logan on Apr 16, 2016 6:27:37 GMT -6
Group of retired Providence police and firefighters back in court to protest 2013 pension deal
PROVIDENCE — Lawyers for the city and a group of police and fire retirees were back in Superior Court Friday as the retirees sought to show how their clients had suffered unjustly from a 2013 decision to cut their pensions, while the city’s lawyers tried to undercut their evidence.
Kevin Bowen, a lawyer for the retirees, spent the day questioning William Fornia, a pension expert who the retirees brought in to testify about the damages they say they suffered and how the city might have foreseen the 2011-12 pension crisis, and solved it sooner and with less drastic actions.
The retirees are contesting a 2013 agreement between the city, its firefighters and police unions, and representatives of its retired police and firefighters that suspended annual cost-of-living-increases until around 2036 and moved retirees eligible for Medicare off city health insurance and into the federal health plan. The city is paying for supplemental insurance to cover shortfalls in Medicare coverage.
The city saved $18.5 million with the deal and cut its pension liability by $170 million.
More than 80 percent of the city’s 1,357 retired public safety workers consented to the agreement, but a dissenting group of 68 opted out and sued, and they were in Superior Court asking Judge Sarah Taft-Carter to undo the deal.
Read more: www.providencejournal.com/news/20160415/group-of-retired-providence-police-and-firefighters-back-in-court-to-protest-2013-pension-deal
PROVIDENCE — Lawyers for the city and a group of police and fire retirees were back in Superior Court Friday as the retirees sought to show how their clients had suffered unjustly from a 2013 decision to cut their pensions, while the city’s lawyers tried to undercut their evidence.
Kevin Bowen, a lawyer for the retirees, spent the day questioning William Fornia, a pension expert who the retirees brought in to testify about the damages they say they suffered and how the city might have foreseen the 2011-12 pension crisis, and solved it sooner and with less drastic actions.
The retirees are contesting a 2013 agreement between the city, its firefighters and police unions, and representatives of its retired police and firefighters that suspended annual cost-of-living-increases until around 2036 and moved retirees eligible for Medicare off city health insurance and into the federal health plan. The city is paying for supplemental insurance to cover shortfalls in Medicare coverage.
The city saved $18.5 million with the deal and cut its pension liability by $170 million.
More than 80 percent of the city’s 1,357 retired public safety workers consented to the agreement, but a dissenting group of 68 opted out and sued, and they were in Superior Court asking Judge Sarah Taft-Carter to undo the deal.
Read more: www.providencejournal.com/news/20160415/group-of-retired-providence-police-and-firefighters-back-in-court-to-protest-2013-pension-deal