Firing could boost a state pension

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi's executive assistant, Donna Sweeney, was fired last month after 20 years of service in the House of Representatives, 20 years and 11 days, to be exact.

The dismissal of the 42-year-old staff member, less than two weeks after she qualified for early pension benefits, could increase her annual payout to $20,000, more than four times the annual amount she would have received if she had quit. The increase could mean potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars more in pension payments over her lifetime.

Under a law designed to protect employees from being harmed by politically motivated dismissals when newly elected officials take over, state workers who have 20 years of service are eligible for significantly higher pension benefits if they are terminated and can prove they were not fired because of questionable behavior. But they are disqualified from the enhanced benefit if there is any evidence of collusion with a superior to make what is in fact a resignation appear to be a termination.

Soon after Sweeney was dismissed in March, the State Retirement Board delayed a vote on her application for an enhanced pension after board members raised questions about the timing of her termination. The board will reconsider Sweeney's request today. If denied, Sweeney would qualify for an annual pension of $4,600.

In response to a query from the board, House personnel director E. Keith Johnson said Sweeney's executive assistant position was eliminated as part of a comprehensive House reorganization that began in fall 2005. The speaker wanted a special assistant, someone who would assume Sweeney's main duties as scheduler and also take on "additional managerial and supervisory tasks." Three days after Sweeney was told her job would no longer exist, the House hired Katie Quinn, Johnson wrote.

According to State Retirement Board records, it is highly unusual for an employee to be dismissed just after becoming eligible for the enhanced pension. Most often, the higher pension kicks in as the result of a new administration coming into office and filling agencies with its own hires. Elected officials with enough service can also qualify if they lose a reelection race.

In 2002, the Retirement Board rejected a similar claim by Peter Forman, chief of staff to Acting Governor Jane Swift, after some board members questioned whether he had really been dismissed. The board restored the benefits the following year after Swift signed an affidavit stating that she had fired Forman.

Between January and March, 16 former state employees applied for the so-called Section X pensions. Three applications were denied, including that of a worker who said she was terminated exactly on the 20th anniversary of her hiring, according to Retirement Board records. The board determined that she had not actually been fired.

In one of the other cases, the board determined that the worker had been offered another job and had not been fired.

Most of the applicants had substantially more than 20 years of service when they were fired. Some were longtime officials replaced in the early weeks of the Patrick administration, including David Peters, former commissioner of the Department of Fish & Game, who had 20 years and three months of service, and Janice Tartarka, former director of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, who had nearly 25 years of state service.

Allison Mitchell, spokeswoman for state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who oversees the Retirement Board, would not say how the board is likely to act on Sweeney's application. "The Retirement Board reviews these cases very carefully to make sure the applicant has met the requirements of the law," she said.

Sweeney, a Medford resident, could not be reached for comment. According to public records, she earned $46,000 in 2005.

The timing of Sweeney's departure was coincidental, DiMasi spokesman David Guarino said. DiMasi decided to replace her in November, he said, but the reorganization and hiring process dragged on for several months.

"In March, as we eliminated a number of other titles throughout the House and changed job descriptions, a final decision was made," he said. "Because the speaker couldn't be without a scheduler, Donna stayed on until a replacement was found."

Sweeney's successor, who previously worked as an aide to two state lawmakers, is serving not only as DiMasi's scheduler but as his office manager and liaison to other legislators, Guarino said.

But observers said the state's pension system should be reviewed because there is too much opportunity for abuse.

David Tuerck -- executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute, a conservative think tank -- said it does not make sense for the state to give a bonus to people who are dismissed, even if the reason has nothing to do with their performance.

"So, the penalty for being fired is you get another $15,000 a year?" Tuerck said.

If the state moved from a traditional pension plan, in which benefits are figured according to a formula, to a defined contribution plan, in which benefits depend on the amounts contributed and how the money is invested, pension abuse would be virtually impossible, he said.

"The reason we have the existing plan is so that politicians can reward their cronies," he said. "This system is not to the advantage of the average employee, who would do better if their money were put in the market. The worst part is that the state has an enormous unfunded pension liability, and this just exacerbates the problem."

Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei, Republican of Wakefield, has proposed legislation that would cap payouts, in an effort to eliminate excessive pensions.

"There is a compelling need to reexamine our entire pension system to eliminate the quirks and loopholes that exist," he said. "Every time they are exercised and come to light, the public loses confidence in the system. And state employees, who expect the system to have integrity, lose confidence, as well."

When state employees apply for the pension Sweeney has requested, their employer must certify under penalty of perjury that the employee either was not reappointed, that his or her office or job was abolished, or that he or she was removed or discharged "without moral turpitude."

The application must be approved by both the Retirement Board and the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, which oversees public pension systems.

If Sweeney's application is approved, she will begin collecting benefits retroactive to March.

Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com.