High court: Automobile shouldn't be included when calculating official's pension

By Globe Staff

The state's highest court ruled today that a public employee, when calculating his pay for pension purposes, can't include the value of his personal use of a city car as part of his pay.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a case brought by Kenneth C. Pelonzi, former fire chief and public safety commissioner in Beverly.

Pelonzi was provided with a city car for official use. He was also allowed to use it for his own personal business because he was always on-call in case of an emergency.

Public employee pension payments in Massachusetts are basically calculated by a combination of three factors: the retiree's age, years of service, and highest average pay for three consecutive years.

Pelonzi argued that the value of his personal use of the car should be included when calculating his pay, which would have increased his monthly benefits by $327. Pelonzi won his case in Superior Court.

But the Supreme Judicial Court today overturned the lower court ruling, saying the car was not "regular compensation" for Pelonzi's services.

It said there was "nothing in the entire statutory scheme that would indicate a legislative intent to include an employer-supplied automobile that is required by the fundamental nature of an employee's job."

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