Bodybuilder's claim still pending
2d opinion sought on firefighter's bid
Despite videos showing Boston Firefighter Albert Arroyo competing in a bodybuilding contest, the city's Retirement Board is not convinced that his disability application citing a work-related back injury is bogus, as other city officials have suggested.
Instead, the board is reserving judgment while Arroyo gets a second opinion on his doctor's diagnosis that he was totally incapacitated and deserved a disability pension.
"Nothing's going to happen with this guy until we get more medical information," said Robert E. Tierney, executive officer of the Boston Retirement Board. "We want more information as to his condition."
The board has not taken any action on Arroyo's application for disability retirement since Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser asked the agency in June to reject the application. Fraser has ordered Arroyo back to work, but Arroyo has refused the order. Arroyo's lawyer, Neil Osborne, said he hopes to have a second medical opinion verifying his client's disability submitted to the board by mid-August.
The fire commissioner, meanwhile, said he wants more information overall about the Retirement Board office, which is oversen by a five-member panel chaired by an official of the Boston Firefighters Union. Fraser says the office's delays in processing dozens of firefighter applications are suspicious and appear biased toward firefighters.
"We can't afford to just turn a blind eye to the inefficiencies and questionable decision-making in the Boston Retirement Board," Fraser said yesterday.
The board has 95 firefighter disability pension applications pending. Of those, 51 have been pending for longer than six months and 20 were filed more than 18 months ago. State law requires the board to vote on applications within six months. Those applications must first be processed by the retirement office overseen by the board.
Each week that applications linger, according to city officials, a firefighter whose case is under review takes home an average of $1,658 in tax-free injury pay, because firefighters receive 100 percent of their pay while on injury leave.
The city can cut those expenses by getting faster action. If the board rejects a pension, the firefighter may return to work, and the city no longer pays for a firefighter who is not on the job. And if the board approves the disability pension, the weekly expense drops to an average of $1,191 each in disability pension pay, which is 72 percent of the former salary.
Tierney, who is responsible for day-to-day operations of the retirement office, denies any suggestion that it is lenient on firefighters who have made disability claims and are on sick leave awaiting a decision.
Part of the backlog is the state's fault, not the city's, Tierney said. He said 31 of the applications filed more than six months ago are awaiting action from state retirement officials, who need to schedule appointments for the applicants with a three-member medical review panel. He said he expects the city's Retirement Board to vote on 14 others at a meeting scheduled Monday.
As for the remainder, Tierney says, the Retirement Board office is processing them as fast as possible. He said the office does not have enough resources to finish all the cases within six months, although he says he has asked for more money to be budgeted for that purpose.
The five-member board that oversees his office sets the budget and staffing levels based on the income available from investing pension funds. The Retirement Board office currently has 38 full-time employees and an annual operating budget of $4.9 million.
A message left yesterday for the board's chairman, Lawrence Curran, who is the Boston Firefighters Local 718 representative on Beacon Hill, was not returned.
The City Council joined the push yesterday for scrutiny of the Retirement Board. Council President Maureen E. Feeney and Councilor Stephen J. Murphy issued a statement saying they plan to schedule a public hearing to get to the bottom of application delays at the board.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday that he backs the fire commissioner's efforts to get answers about delays.
"The mayor supports the fire commissioner in all that he is doing to reform the Fire Department," Menino spokeswoman Dorothy Joyce said. "The Retirement Board should follow the commissioner's lead in making sure that this process isn't costing taxpayers more than it should."
Tierney is the brother of former Boston city councilor and mayoral candidate Joseph Tierney. He is also a lawyer and certified mediator who previously served as a state civil service commissioner and spent 20 years as a magistrate in the state's Division of Administrative Law Appeals. He was appointed to the Civil Service Commission by Governor Paul Cellucci after lobbying efforts on his behalf by the statewide firefighters union, administration and union officials have said.
Robert McCarthy, president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, said he has had no contact with Tierney since writing a letter to Cellucci on his behalf.
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
