Newton pension board sending two to Hawaii conference

Despite its apparent readiness to hand control of the city's pension fund to the state, the Newton Retirement Board is sending two of its five members to Hawaii's Waikiki Beach for a six-day conference for public pension panels in May.

Board member Francis Capello , a city firefighter, has attended the conference annually for the past 12 years. This would be the fourth trip for Paul Bianchi , a police officer. In past years, the conference has been held in such places as Hollywood, Fla.; Las Vegas; Anaheim, Calif.; and Denver.

Among other area retirement boards, Needham is footing the bill for the Hawaii conference for one member, while Marlborough, Watertown, and Waltham are considering it. The Framingham, Maynard, Milford, Shrewsbury, and Wellesley boards decided not to send a delegation.

"This board has never attended any national conferences, and we probably never will," said Roberta Griffin , director of the Framingham Retirement Board. "There is no big need for our board to attend the national conferences. They are too far away, and our work is here in the office."

Laurie Lizak , the Wellesley Retirement Board administrator, said when her office receives notices of far-away conferences, "generally, they go in the trash."

The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems brings together retirement board members and investment managers.

Globe West reported in December that the Natick Contributory Retirement Board spent more than $63,000 during a three-year period on travel to various conferences, often in locales popular with tourists.

Natick's selectmen chided the board for the excess, particularly since the local retirement fund's investments showed relatively poor returns. Even so, members this year approved attendance, but none took the opportunity to go.

The Globe article prompted the Needham Retirement Board to review its decision to send member John Krawiecki to this year's Hawaii conference, said its chairwoman, Evelyn Poness .

However, the firefighter already had reservations and board members ultimately decided that the trip would be worthwhile.

"We felt it was a good idea to have a representative there," Poness said, adding they would probably approve the trip next year.

In Marlborough, retirement board members held a lengthy discussion of whether potential bad publicity is reason enough to discontinue sending firefighter William Taylor to the event.

"Our answer was, 'Definitely not,' " said member Christopher Sandini . The conference is "one he really looks forward to, because of the content."

This would be Taylor's third trip to a national conference.

In 2002, Taylor paid his own plane fare when the conference was held in Florida, where he planned to vacation anyway, while the board picked up the tab for his hotel and registration fees.

Last year, the board paid plane fare and expenses for the conference, also held in Florida, according to Margaret Shea , the retirement board's director.

Taylor said conference networking has helped him.

"You always pick up new ideas that are useful," said Taylor, who has not yet decided whether to go to Hawaii.

Newton board members Bianchi and Capello agreed that attending the conference pays dividends for the city's retirement fund. "We do not abuse the system," Bianchi said.

Neither Bianchi nor Capello could give specific examples of benefits to their board, but said they have become more astute about pension fund investment strategy and disability benefits awards by meeting fund managers and far-flung colleagues.

"Any time you can take something good out of a conference, it's good for the city," said Capello, also head of the local firefighters union.

Fellow board member David Wilkinson , city comptroller, said that while the conference might offer insight into investment strategies, Massachusetts law governs disability benefits so tightly that the experience of other states would be largely irrelevant to the Newton board.

Wilkinson stressed that he believes the conference can be useful. He said he does not attend because, for people in positions like his, "We can't get away from our jobs."

The Newton Retirement Board has come under particular scrutiny lately as the city struggles to balance its books.

A blue-ribbon commission proposed in January that the board turn over the management of its $265 million in assets to the state -- a recommendation also floated recently by Governor Deval Patrick.

A Globe West survey of investment returns found that the state fund has performed better than Newton's in eight of the last 12 years. The blue-ribbon commission estimated that had the shift to state control occurred a decade ago, the city's fund would have earned an extra $30 million .

Members of the retirement board last month indicated they were leaning toward putting the fund in state hands, but first wanted the formal backing of the mayor and aldermen. Mayor David B. Cohen has endorsed the idea.

Still, at the same Feb. 28 meeting, the five-member board voted unanimously in favor of the Hawaii trip, and budgeted roughly $6,700 to cover Capello's and Bianchi's plane fare, hotel, meals, taxis, and tips. They are bringing their wives at their own expense.

A local financial watchdog said while the cost is "a pittance" compared with the size of the retirement fund, it sends the wrong message at a time of stressed municipal finances.

"This is a moral issue," said Jeff Seideman , president of the Newton Taxpayers Association. "They should ask themselves, 'Is it the right thing to do?' "

This will be the first year the Newton board will require attendees to report in writing afterward what they learned at the conference.

Nunzio Piselli , Newton's board chairman, pointed out that Capello and Bianchi are answerable to their constituents, the city's union employees.

"If the people that elected them think they're doing it so they could go on a junket, they'd have to be careful . . . because they wouldn't get elected anymore," Piselli said. "They have to justify what they're doing, why they're doing it, and what they derived from it."

The Newton board's expenses for the national conference from 1997 to 2006 have ranged from $1,376 in 2003 , when Capello went alone to Colorado, to $4,986 in 2000 , when Capello and Bianchi's predecessor, the late Robert Magni, went to Hawaii.

Board policy limits travel to the national conference and to a state conference.

Newton's board director, Kelly Byrne , said it might have to exceed its annual travel budget of $9,700 this year to cover both the state conference and the Hawaii trip.

This year's Hawaii conference, expected to attract 1,200 , will be held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, a resort and spa with tropical gardens on Waikiki Beach.

Conference speakers include Gene B. Sperling , former national economic adviser to President Clinton, according to the event's website, ncpers.org.

Officials in 26 other area communities are spared the decision about paying for the national conference, since they belong to county pension systems and do not have local retirement boards.

Connie Paige can be reached at cpaige@globe.com.