Patrick stimulus chief was fired from state post

Simon has been receiving pension since 1995

The real estate developer chosen by Governor Deval Patrick to distribute billions of dollars in federal stimulus money has been receiving a state pension ever since he was fired from his job at a state development agency in 1995, according to state records.

Jeffrey A. Simon, 58, was tapped by the governor on Wednesday to the newly created job of director of infrastructure investment, which will pay him $150,000 a year. The governor promptly posted a summary of Simon's résumé on his website after the appointment, listing a distinguished career as a real estate specialist in government and the private sector, with expertise in redeveloping military bases.

But what the résumé posting did not say was that Simon was terminated in 1995 from his state job overseeing the redevelopment of Fort Devens.

The governor and his staff also did not disclose that, under a Massachusetts pension law intended to protect patronage hires from retribution, his firing entitled him to begin collecting an enhanced state pension while he was in his mid-40s.

Simon could not be reached for comment. His retirement records do not include a reason for his dismissal from the agency where he worked in the mid-1990s, the Massachusetts Government Land Bank. His official résumé suggests he left the Land Bank because he was recruited for a similar job by the government of Bermuda.

A spokesman for Patrick, Joe Landolfi, provided a statement last night that said the administration knew Simon had departed state government. The statement did not address the questions of Simon's pension or his dismissal from the agency, however.

"Mr. Simon was fully vetted prior to being offered the position of director of infrastructure investment. He disclosed that he retired from state service more than a decade ago," Landolfi said. "He is eminently qualified to serve in this critical role, and we are confident he will successfully ensure federal stimulus funds are invested responsibly and transparently."

State retirement records show that Simon has been paid $29,000 to $32,000 a year since December 1995 with his enhanced, early pension. He has collected $403,751.84 in all, according to state records.

Simon will forgo the pension payments while he serves in his new state job, according to administration officials.

Patrick has called for pension reform. Pensions such as the one Simon is receiving have been criticized by some who say some former state officials are taking advantage of statutes intended for another purpose, but the Legislature has not changed the law.

The state retirement board has balked at paying benefits to some workers who sometimes lose their jobs just after recording their 20th year of service. In 2007, then-House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi fired his executive assistant after she worked almost exactly 20 years to the day.

In 2002, the retirement board rejected a claim by Peter Forman, chief of staff for Acting Governor Jane Swift after board members questioned whether he had really been fired.

A handful of Big Dig managers who worked at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority also left the agency with pensions at a relatively young age.

Simon, who also worked in the 1970s for Senate President William M. Bulger and for the Massachusetts Land Bank in the 1970s and 1980s, did not have the required 20 years of state service when he was fired.

So to qualify for his early pension, he took advantage of another quirk in state law - the ability to include pension credit for nonstate jobs. Simon asked the Essex County retirement board to have time he served as a $150-a-year member of the Ipswich School Committee added to his pension.

The board refused, but Simon appealed to a state administrative judge, who eventually ruled in his favor and awarded him five years of School Committee time.