Big Dig official's firing led to windfall

Pension tripled under state law

State officials initially said Michael P. Lewis had retired.

Michael P. Lewis didn't retire from his longtime post as the head of the Big Dig project as the state previously said, but was actually fired last year by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

But for Lewis, the news wasn't bad.

The move allowed him to more than triple his state pension, from $23,000 to $72,578 a year, according to state records. Last month, Lewis, 46, received the first of the Massachusetts pension checks that he will receive until he dies. As with other turnpike retirees, the state will also pay 80 percent of his health insurance for life.

Lewis also landed on his feet with a new job. He began working last month in his new position as Rhode Island's transportation secretary, earning $130,000 a year.

Contacted yesterday through his office in Rhode Island, he declined to be interviewed, but continued to characterize his departure as a retirement.

The pension increase for Lewis was the result of a state law intended to protect state employees from politically motivated dismissals. Employees with more than 20 years of service are eligible for enhanced pensions if they can prove they were not fired because of poor performance or malfeasance. In his case, the reason was that his job was eliminated.

"These types of benefits are way too rich in a time of dire fiscal straits," said Mary Z. Connaughton, a Turnpike Authority board member, who learned of Lewis's enhanced pension from the Globe. "The average working person doesn't get benefits nearly as generous and yet is paying for these public employee benefits."

Employees dismissed in this fashion can be denied the increased pension if there is any evidence of collusion with a superior to make what is in fact a resignation appear to be a termination, according to state regulations. There is no indication of investigation in this case, and two state boards have already approved it.

Mary Jane O'Meara, who was the Turnpike Authority's acting director when Lewis left, told Lewis in an Oct. 22 letter that his position was being abolished and suggested he would be eligible for the enhanced pension due to his termination. O'Meara's letter offered no other position to Lewis and treated his departure as a foregone conclusion, saying he would be contacted for an "exit interview" and thanking him for "your many contributions." O'Meara, now a Massachusetts Port Authority manager, declined to comment.

The Turnpike Authority Retirement Board approved Lewis's enhanced pension on Dec. 19. The approval came about a month after Alan LeBovidge was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to run the authority, but there is no indication in records that he was involved in the decision.

The enhanced pension was also approved by the Public Employees Retirement Administration Commission. Joseph E. Connarton, the executive director, said the commission accepts the assertions of agencies whenever they say a position has been cut.

Despite all this, when Lewis left his $185,000-a-year post last year, Turnpike Authority spokesman Mac Daniel said he had retired.

Lewis's salary made him a prime candidate for termination once the authority began shedding jobs with the completion of the Big Dig; the agency has recently eliminated 25 percent of its administrative jobs.

"Given the authority's financial situation and the fact that the Big Dig was complete, Mr. Lewis's job was no longer necessary," Daniel said this week.

Asked why Lewis wasn't offered another post, Daniel said, "We were eliminating positions at that time, and Michael Lewis was one of those eliminated."

Daniel took responsibility for telling reporters in November that Lewis had retired, rather than being terminated. "I was not privy to everything; I misspoke," he said yesterday.

Lewis's pension records were obtained by the Globe under the state's public records law.

Lewis had primary oversight responsibility for the Big Dig for the last seven years of the project, which was widely criticized for bloated costs, missed deadlines, and shoddy workmanship. Originally estimated to cost under $3 billion and to be complete in 1998, the Big Dig ended up costing $15 billion. Crews are still plugging leaks and working on a number of unfinished details.

On Lewis's watch, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and other design and management firms paid the state only $35,000 in refunds through 2003. After a Globe story about the low amount of refunds, the Turnpike Authority appointed a retired probate court judge to take over the job of cost recovery. The state attorney general's office later took over from the judge and eventually won a $508 million settlement.

In addition, Lewis's repeated assurances that water leaking into the tunnels would end went largely unfulfilled, and last year a state report repudiated his assertion the problem was under control.

In 2006, after a section of tunnel ceiling collapsed and killed a Jamaica Plain woman, Matthew J. Amorello was forced to resign as authority chairman. Lewis, who frequently appeared at Amorello's side in times of crisis, remained.

In a February interview with the Providence Journal, Lewis said he was very proud of the Big Dig, "an enormous undertaking that has delivered what was promised."

Sean Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com.