Pension board official to retire
Tierney set to quit as claims pile up from firefighters
The executive officer of the Boston Retirement Board is stepping down amid complaints about lengthy delays in reviewing Boston firefighter disability pension claims, according to two public officials briefed on his planned departure.
Robert E. Tierney notified the Menino administration that he plans to take three weeks of vacation and then retire from his post overseeing day-to-day operations of the Retirement Board's staff, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak publicly about the development.
Tierney's departure after five years in the post follows a flurry of news reports about a huge backlog of firefighter disability applications and the controversial case of Albert Arroyo, a firefighter who competed in a bodybuilding contest six weeks after reporting that he was permanently incapacitated and unable to work as a fire inspector.
Tierney said earlier this week that his office was waiting for a second medical opinion before taking action on Arroyo's application for a disability pension.
A message left at Tierney's office and a call to his home yesterday were not returned.
The officials said Tierney packed up and left his office at City Hall yesterday and planned to announce his retirement Monday at a meeting of the five-member Retirement Board, which oversees his office.
Tierney, who has been executive officer of the board since 2003, spent much of this week trying to defend his office's handling of disability pension applications after Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser sent him a letter demanding to know why 71 firefighter applications had not been processed after six months, the time limit specified in state law for approval or denial of such claims.
The delays are costing taxpayers at least $44,000 per week, money that firefighters are paid, tax free, while they wait out the pension decisions on injury leave, according to city officials.
"We can't afford to just turn a blind eye to the inefficiencies and questionable decision-making in the Boston Retirement Board," Fraser said in comments that were published by the Globe in a report Thursday.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino has also pushed for better handing of retirement applications.
"The Retirement Board should follow the commissioner's lead in making sure that this process isn't costing taxpayers more than it should," Menino said.
In the Globe report Thursday, Tierney was quoted as saying that his office did not have enough funding or staff to process all the applications within six months. He also blamed a portion of the delays on the state.
Tierney is the brother of former Boston city councilor and mayoral candidate Joseph Tierney.
Robert Tierney 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 Division of Administrative Law Appeals.
He was appointed to the state Civil Service Commission by Governor Paul Cellucci after lobbying efforts on his behalf by the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, which represents firefighters statewide.
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
