New Haven Independent

Then Epstein said no vote should have been taken at all.

Willoughby is the fourth cop arrested on corruption charges this year and he’s pleaded not guilty that he stole thousands from a special departmental informant fund. His arrest is unconnected to that of ex-cops Billy White, Justen Kasperzyk, and Jose Silva, who were snared in narcotics-related bribery scandal.

Epstein’s nay, however, was apparently not intended to pass any kind of moral judgment on Willoughby, the 24-year police veteran, who is contending that he is innocent. Epstein said he was only raising what amounts to a strictly procedural matter.

“Look,” he said to his fellow trustees, “it’s not up to us to say a person can or cannot retire. Any person can retire if they want to. It’s an administrative matter. You retire, and here are the numbers and here is your pension.”

He said the Board of Police Commissioners also votes on age annuities, as the pensions are formally called. But there too Epstein questioned whether it’s appropriate since there is no discretion.

Another trustee went so far as to suggest that if the board voted “no” on a straight age annuity (as opposed to disability annuity, which is within the purview of the board), the board might even run the risk of being sued.

The Policemen and Firemen’s Reitrement Fund Board’s main mandate is to oversee and manage the investment of the retirement fund. They also vote on disability annuities, because in these cases subjective judgment of medical reports and other claims is involved. Not so with age annuities.

Still, it was hard not to sense during the discussions, that Epstein was not also motivated by other considerations as well.

When Sgt. Frank Lombardi (pictured), the police union’s rep to the board, made the motion to approve the age annuities for Michael Quinn and Clarence Willoughby as one agenda item, there was a brief halt in the proceedings.

Epstein pointedly asked for the names to be separated. When they were, the vote was unanimous for Quinn. Then Epstein, with a certain sadness in his voice, voted “no” in the case of Willougby. The only “no.”

After the meeting Epstein said the recent arbitrator’s ruling (click here) overturning Detective Billy White’s termination — saying in essence that the police contract trumped any firing the city could do because White had retired before the firing — was unfortunate. “In the next contract, yes,” he said, “there should be some kind of ‘bad boy’ clause. I think most of the police commissioners feel that way.”

However, he added, that ruling did not affect his take on the board’s early morning proceedings, held at 200 Orange St.’s sun-filled third-floor conference room. The appropriateness of voting on items where the board didn’t have any real discretion, had been a question lingering for some time, he said.

Nevertheless, was there any symbolism to his nay in the case of Willoughby? Epstein paused, then said there was not. It was simply a question of the item’s administratively not belonging on the board’s agenda, he said.

Epstein did not want to get specific about whether in his opinion a discredited and corrupt cop should be able to retrieve from his pension, by way of one example, what he’s put in and the city’s contribution be denied him. “If someone’s betrayed the public trust,” he said, “all I’m saying is that he should not get benefits to the extent that others do who serve appropriately.”

Billy White’s Pension Goes Higher
In a related matter, also occasioned by the arbitrator’s ruling, the board voted to increase Billy White’s pension. Although when he retired, he was granted his $91,000 pension, when the police commissioners fired White, he was denied a certain lump sum that police get on retirement. That denial of access was overturned by the arbitrator’s ruling.

What White can now get at is the monetary value of the unused sick days that he had accumulated on retirement. According to Jerome Sagnella, the city’s payroll and pension administrator, who sits with the board as a staff member, that could add up to either a lump sum, or another 3 percent (30 sick days = 3 percent) added to the value of White’s pension, bringing it the absolutely maxed out 83 percent. Sagnella estimated that might be translate into another $3,000 per year that White would receive from taxpayers.

In this matter Bishop Theodore Brooks (pictured above with Epstein), vice chair of the pension board, echoed Epstein. “This is an administrative matter too. It’s a question of the numbers,” he said. “Arithematic. It should be handled not as a special case, but the usual way, administratively.”

Trustees asked Sagnella to talk to the city’s corporation counsel for an official determination whether age-related retirement issues not come before the pension boards at all in the future.

Lombardi in effect agreed that in future such items might appear on the agendas as informational points, not issues to be voted on. But that was for the future. He added, “I’m just bringing the White pension matter up this morning because the parties involved asked me to.”

According to Sagnella, Willoughby’s pension was calculated this way: 2.5 percent for each of the first 20 years of service, which adds up to 50 percent. Then it’s 3 percent for each of the next ten years. Since Willoughby served 26 years, he was able to add another 18 percent (that is, 3 percent x the additional six years above 20), for a total of 68 percent of the average salary he earned during the four years of highest earnings. That’s how the $58,541 is derived.

The highest a cop can receive is 80 percent (that is, 50 percent for the first 20 years and 30 percent for the last ten at 3 percent per). That’s what White was receiving to get his $91,000. However, now, as a result of the arbitrator’s ruling — and the board’s “non-vote” — he can get his additional lump sum for accrued sick time or an added 3 percent to his pension.

“It’s the taxpayers’ money,” said Sagnella, who has been with the city for 30 years, “and the taxpayers have a right to know.”