Thomas Breen file photo
Former union prez Frank Ricci.
The city plans to pay former fire union president Frank Ricci roughly $7,500 in enhanced pension benefits between now and the end of the year.
But come January 2021, those city payments may stop and the city’s pension fund may take them over — depending on how retirements in the fire department shake out over the next four months.
That’s the latest development in the ongoing saga of how much Ricci, who retired on July 4, should be paid on top of his existing public pension.
The matter is already the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Board of Alders against Mayor Justin Elicker in early July.
In that complaint, the local legislature alleged that the chief executive overstepped his bounds when he struck an agreement with Ricci without aldermanic approval that required the city to pay for a $386,659.92 annuity on top of the former union chief’s existing pension benefits. Elicker responded that the city is legally required to make the extra retirement payments because of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) first signed in 2006 between the DeStefano Administration and the fire union, and then amended in 2019 by the Harp Administration to specifically provide for Ricci.
As that lawsuit proceeds through state Superior Court, the city’s Police & Fire Pension Fund (P&F) board took up the issue of Ricci’s enhanced pension pay during an executive session discussion last Thursday. According to the board’s website, the meeting spanned Thursday morning and afternoon.
City spokesperson Gage Frank told the Independent that the pension board advised during that meeting that the new firefighter contract throws the payments into question.
At issue is whether the new firefighter contract will move responsibility for paying Ricci’s enhanced benefit over to the pension board, or whether it will remain with the city, after Dec. 31. Under the new contract, the highest-ranking 30 firefighters retiring in a year are eligible for the sick leave buy back. If Ricci ends up not in the top 30, the issue will be whether the pension board must take over that payment.
Between now and the end of December, Frank said, the city plans to pay Ricci roughly $7,500 in total on top of his existing pension benefits. At that point it’s going to be a question of who pays.
“We are required to honor the 2006 MOU,” he wrote. “As such, we are required to pay the difference between the benefit increase from the sick time buy back until December 31, 2020.”
At the end of 2020, he said, the pension board will determine if Ricci is eligible for these enhanced benefits going forward under the current union contract.
“In the current union contract, the highest ranking 30 firefighters to retire in 2020 will be allowed to benefit from sick-leave buyback,” he wrote. “If, on December 31, 2020, Mr. Ricci is one of the 30 firefighters, he will be eligible for sick time buyback under the current contract and therefore it will be the responsibility of the Pension Fund to pay the sick-leave buy back benefits starting in January 2021.”
That is, the pension fund—and not the Elicker Administration—would have to pick up paying that enhanced pension amount starting in January if Ricci falls within the top 30 ranking firefighters to have retired this year.
“The Pension Fund made this determination,” Frank said. He directed any questions as to the reasons for the determination to the pension fund’s counsel. Carolyn Kone, the attorney for the P&F pension board, declined to comment for this story.
“The adverse action by the pension board was predicated by an FOI request by the Board of Alders inquiring about my lawful pension time,” Ricci told the Independent by email in a request for comment for this story.
“Unfortunately for the taxpayers, personal vendettas by the alders in the end will cost taxpayers dearly. This is the Board of Alders’ final act of unlawful retaliation and retributions for the Ricci case and other protected activity.”
According to the New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary, who first reported the story about the Board of Alders-filed lawsuit in July, Ricci retired after 22 years of service with the New Haven Fire Department. Because he was able to buy back five years of sick time towards his pension and was also able to include three years as stipulated in a 2009 Supreme Court-ordered settlement, his total pension calculation covers 30 years of service.
The 2006 MOU between former Mayor John DeStefano and the fire union, meanwhile, allowed a union president with seven years in that position, when taking into account time served as both president and vice president, to calculate their pension using the highest budgeted salary of any fire union member, according to O’Leary’s reporting. The 2019 amendment between former Mayor Harp and the union limited that enhanced pension benefit to the then-current president, Ricci, as well as to the then-current vice president. On May 7, 2020, the Elicker Administration signed an agreement with Ricci to cover the enhanced benefit.
If former Mayor DeStefano signed the agreement without BOA approval, and BOA approval was required, then he should be personally responsible for making payment to Ricci. Thank you to the present BOA for fighting this payment and looking after the taxpayer's interests. I hope you win.