I think the politicians and authorities should be locked up.
"Some at Bristol jail got boost in pension; Sheriff’s hires gained windfall" by Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | March 9, 2010
For 22 years, Robert Tweedie served as a part-time, on-call pharmacist for the New Bedford Board of Health, making $2,200 a year.
Then, in 2001, he took a $77,000-a-year pharmacist job in the office of Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. After working exactly three years - public retirees’ pensions are based on their top three years’ salary - Tweedie retired, boosting his pension from $1,171 a year to $46,781.
Tweedie said he was not aware, when he took the job, that it would increase his pension dramatically.
“I didn’t know I was going to get anything,’’ he said in an interview. But, he said, “I was fortunate to be able to work there.’’
Tweedie is one of many current and former employees of Hodgson’s who have greatly enhanced their retirement benefits by working for the sheriff, a Globe review of payroll and pension records found.
Some employees transferred from other public agencies or private companies, working just long enough to qualify for the most generous pensions allowed under state law. Others were given titles that automatically qualified them for richer benefits, even though those titles are supposed to be reserved for jobs deemed dangerous.
It's called looting.
Hodgson, a tough-talking Republican renowned for trying to charge inmates for room and board, acknowledged that some employees have seen their pensions balloon as a result of their service in his office.
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Massachusetts Justice: The Brubaker of Massachusetts
Not quite.
But, he said, he plays no role in awarding benefits, and the employees are simply taking what is available to them under law....
Yeah, NOTHING WRONG with it, tapped-out taxpayers!
But Hodgson himself has given out an unusually high number of special job titles that automatically qualify employees for bigger pensions.
And YOU KNOW WHO is PAYING, right, Massachusetts taxpayers?
Many current and former employees of the Bristol County sheriff’s office have been designated assistant deputy superintendents, putting them in the most lucrative pension category.
This category, meant for correction officers, police officers, and others whose hazardous duties often force them to cut their careers short, allows employees to retire with a generous benefit at age 55, 10 years earlier than most other public employees.
So then they can come back in and START DOUBLE-DIPPING, right?
In corrections, the category, known as Group 4, generally covers employees who have regular contact with inmates. Under Hodgson’s administration, employees with administrative, clerical, and even construction duties have received this classification, and many have retired with the more lucrative benefits.
Isn't that just like STEALING?
A succession of employees have retired from Hodgson’s office with enhanced benefits.
One was former state correction commissioner Kathleen Dennehy, who, after being terminated by Patrick in 2007, took a job with Hodgson as superintendent of security and operations. She retired 18 months later at age 54 with a pension of more than $106,000....
And yet services are being slashed and taxes raised.
Now you know why, and who state government serves: itself.
If she collects her pension for another 25 years, Dennehy will have received in excess of a million dollars in additional benefits.
Dennehy did not return calls seeking comment, but according to Hodgson, she was forced to retire because of an illness in the family....
Such pension deals, which cost taxpayers millions of dollars, could damage the image Hodgson has cultivated as a fiscal hawk.
Yes, they are ALL SCUM HERE whether they have an R or a D by the name.
The Republican, who is facing two challengers this year, tried to charge inmates $5 a day, but the Supreme Judicial Court rejected the plan. He has also drawn notice by limiting meal portions, switching from orange juice to Tang, and eliminating coffee.
Is he trying to start a riot?
He complained last year that he was running out of money and might have to ask the National Guard to run the jail.
Gee, I can't imagine why!
So WHERE did you HIDE THAT TAX LOOT? Swiss bank account?
Hodgson asserted in the interview that he has saved taxpayers millions of dollars by running a streamlined agency that has operated in the black every year, despite state cutbacks.
Then why would he need money?
PFFFFFFFFFTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a PoS piece of work!
Last year, a number of Hodgson’s employees, fearful that they would lose their special benefits, retired before a new state law took effect....
Yes, THANK YOU for your '"service!"
The f***ers belong in their OWN CAGES!!
