Enjoy!
"Essex retirement board fires chief; Audit cited unauthorized spending" by Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff | March 30, 2010
Timothy A. Bassett, whose long tenure as head of the Essex Regional Retirement Board included his approval of special pension deals for himself and a key political ally, was fired yesterday from his $137,000-a-year position.
Also see: Taking Care of Timmy Bassett
Bassett, a former state legislator, has been under scrutiny since the Globe reported last year that he and his wife, Linda, used their savvy and political connections to secure for themselves tens of thousands of dollars in enhanced annual pension benefits.
Yeah, you didn't need that money for anything, Essex.
Better it should go to the "pubic servant."
The Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, which oversees scores of local and regional retirement boards, released a devastating audit this month of Bassett’s management, saying he had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in public money without the Essex board’s approval.
“The financial records are not being maintained and the management functions are not being performed,’’ the audit concluded.
Yesterday morning, the Essex Regional Retirement Board, in its regular monthly meeting, apparently surprised Bassett by first asking him to resign. When he refused, the board voted, 3 to 1, to fire him.
Well, when your head is stuck so far in the s***pile.....
Bassett, 62, of Marblehead, the chairman and CEO of the board, voted against his own ouster. Katherine O’Leary, his longtime ally, was on a conference call with the board and could not vote.
Neither Bassett nor his lawyer returned phone messages yesterday.
After the vote, Bassett appeared “pretty upset and dejected,’’ said William Martineau, the North Andover fire chief and a longtime board member....
Are we SUPPOSED to FEEL SORRY for a LOOTING PoS?
The state audit portrayed Bassett as operating the Essex Regional Retirement Board as his personal fiefdom.
That is the way ALL POLITICAL OFFICES are OPERATED HERE!
It said that since 2007, Bassett had spent about $650,000 in public retirement funds to hire six law firms and a politically connected lobbyist — all without a search process, competitive bids, or contracts.
Bassett paid $132,000, without any approval or documentation, to three law firms to deal with, among other things, demands from the Globe and others for the release of public documents, the audit said.
He also wired, without proper board approval, $166,000 in public retirement funds into a trust account the board had set up for his retirement, the audit found.
In addition, the audit found, Bassett approved the expenditure of $46,000 in public retirement funds to produce newsletters urging employees and retirees in the regional group to vote against a ballot question in 2008 that would have abolished the state income tax....
Yeah, hand me that bucket of tar.
The audit also found that Bassett, who moonlighted as a lobbyist, used a retirement board credit card to pay his lobbyist registration fee.
“It’s a sad end to his public service career,’’ Joseph Connarton, the state public retirement commission director, said yesterday of Bassett. “You don’t want to see anyone go out like that....’’
Actually, there is ZERO SYMPATHY for this PoS here.
Talking to his friends there., Glob?
Bassett was elected to the House from Lynn in the 1970s, then became executive director of a state development authority, from which he was fired in 1995 amid shifting political winds at the State House. Bassett picked up a $41,000 annual pension, beginning at age 47, as a result of the termination, and went on to be elected Essex County treasurer.
As a member of the Essex retirement board, Bassett voted, with O’Leary, to approve or sign off on each other’s deals to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in promised pension benefits, including giving O’Leary credit for working summers as a playground instructor in Salem while she was a teenager.
O’Leary, in turn, approved an unusual annuity for Bassett worth as much as $500,000.
The annuity was rescinded last year after the Globe began asking for documents relating to Bassett’s planned retirement benefits.
Linda Bassett’s own pension stirred controversy. She applied for a pension in 2002 based in part on her volunteer service on the Lynn public library board of trustees in the 1980s.
FLASHBACK:
"Ex-library trustee's tenure defended" by Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff | May 27, 2009
LYNN - An attorney for a former city library board member with a spotty attendance record argued yesterday that his client had no obligation to attend board meetings in order to earn pension credit.
Pfft!
The attorney made the argument to the Lynn retirement board, which is attempting to rescind the pension of 60-year-old Linda Bassett of Marblehead, and recover about $20,000 in payments she has received....
Bassett and her husband, Timothy, chairman and executive director of the Essex Regional Retirement Board, were the subjects of a Globe report in April about their ability to use insider connections and special legislation to reap extraordinary pension benefits.
Please see: Taking Care of Timmy Bassett
Lynn library meeting minutes indicate that Linda Bassett spent only about 18 hours at library board meetings in her six years on the board. If she lives to age 83, as actuarial charts predict, those six years will bring her $165,000 in pension benefits. That would be more than $9,100 for every hour she devoted to library meetings....
That's ONE HELL of a RATE for DOING NOTHING, 'eh, TAXPAYERS?!!!
And the agenda-pushing Globe made such a big deal about libraries, remember?
Yeah, WHERE IS THAT $$$ GOING?
Back to the article:
But records showed that she last attended a meeting in March 1984, even though she claimed credit through September 1986, two years and five months later.
The Lynn Retirement Board moved to rescind that portion of her pension based on the period during which she attended no meetings, but the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission determined there was no requirement that Linda Bassett attend meetings to receive credit toward a pension. She continues to collect her full pension.
I'm done with you, Massachusetts.
Sad what has become of this state.
Update:
"New state pension rules get initial OK
The state Senate voted initial approval yesterday to legislation making a series of major changes in state pension laws, including the appointment of a receiver to oversee the Essex Regional Retirement Board. The legislation authorizes the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission to appoint the receiver, who would be empowered to appoint, remove, and supervise the board’s employees. The legislation also requires filing of collective bargaining agreements with retirement boards and 18 hours of training for local retirement board members, who also must file statements of their financial interests with the commission (State House News Service)."
