John B. Barranco, the former education official under criminal investigation for allegedly siphoning more than $10 million from a Merrimack Valley agency for special needs children, will begin collecting his $10,000 monthly teachers pension again, at least temporarily, after a decision reached last week by a Middlesex Superior Court judge.
The Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System had cut off Barranco’s pension checks in October 2011, concluding that he had already collected more than $750,000 in pension funds he was not entitled to receive. At the time, the board said it would withhold Barranco’s pension for 6½ years to recoup the money.
But Judge Kenneth V. Desmond Jr. ruled Feb. 19 that the 70-year-old Barranco should get a lump sum of $157,000 in addition to his monthly pension payment until his appeal of the retirement system’s action is resolved, a process Barranco’s attorney said is unlikely to begin before 2015.
Sean P. Neilon, spokesman for the retirement system, expressed “deep disappointment” at Desmond’s decision.
“We believe that our case is very strong and that Mr. Barranco will have to repay the earnings that exceeded the statutory limits,” Neilon said.
Nicholas Poser, Barranco’s attorney on pension matters, called the decision “a huge victory” and predicted that, after Barranco’s appeal is heard, the former educator would prevail.
In a legal filing, Poser said that Barranco, who once earned more than $500,000 a year at the Merrimack Education Center, has received no income other than Social Security since late 2011.
And somehow that wasn't enough.
Former inspector general Gregory W. Sullivan blew the whistle on Barranco in 2011, accusing him of orchestrating the transfer of $11.5 million from the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative, which is funded by nine public school districts, to the Merrimack Education Center that he controlled. Sullivan said Barranco used the money to pay himself, a former girlfriend, and a small coterie of aides lavish salaries while covering personal expenses such as Kentucky Derby tickets and improvements to his Florida vacation home.
State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump subsequently released similar findings, and both the US attorney’s office and state Attorney General Martha Coakley launched criminal investigations that continue. In addition, the State Ethics Commission has accused Barranco of violating the conflict-of-interest law by awarding a no-show job to a well-known lobbyist so that he could increase his state pension.
Now you know why your taxes are going up while services are being cut.
Sullivan said Barranco engineered the transfer of millions from the taxpayer-funded collaborative to the Merrimack Education Center in part by having the center overcharge the collaborative for a variety of services, including rents and administrative costs.
Sullivan’s report recommended that the collaborative sever all financial ties with the Chelmsford-based education center, which the group is now doing, according to the agency’s attorney, Thomas E. Lent.
Late last year, the collaborative and the education center settled many of the financial issues raised by Barranco’s alleged misconduct when the center paid the collaborative nearly $4.2 million and agreed to forgive nearly $4.3 million in purported debts.
On Wednesday, the collaborative’s board voted to return $1 million of the money to the member school districts and may decide to return additional funds, Lent said....
Poser argued that because Barranco’s check came from a nonprofit group, rather than a government agency, the limits on outside income from a government agency cannot apply to him.
“He was the employee of the Merrimack Education Center, not a government entity, so there’s no direct payment to him,” Poser said. “There has been no case ever that has forbidden his kind of arrangement.”
Poser also argued that because the retirement system in 2009 decided to withhold approximately $52,000 in pension payments to Barranco, money it has since recovered, its subsequent decision to withhold an additional $764,000 in payments made over the same period of time violated Barranco’s due process rights.
“You can’t do that,” Poser said.
Desmond let stand the retirement system’s decision to recoup the $52,000.
Retirement system officials are considering an appeal of Desmond’s decision on the $764,000 in pension payments....
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Related: Skipping School Series: Special Ed Class
Not a problem when they run the school system or government.
"Legislation targets jobless aid abuse" January 10, 2013
Responding to complaints about public employees abusing the municipal unemployment benefit system, Governor Deval Patrick announced measures Wednesday that would stop police, school employees, and others from double dipping.
Related: No More Double-Dipping in Massachusetts
That was over four years ago and it is still happening. See why I'm sick of the paper?
Patrick said he would file legislation to adopt recommendations of a task force that proposed changes officials said would restore integrity in the system.
The legislation would reduce an employee’s unemployment benefits by 65 percent of their weekly pension for workers who have retired, but return to work part time with a cap on their potential earnings, but are then laid off. The change would eliminate unemployment benefits for retired workers earning a pension of $53,920 or more.
In addition, school employees such as bus drivers or substitute teachers would be ineligible for unemployment benefits during school vacations or the summer holiday if they have “reasonable assurance” of having a job when school reconvenes.
This isn't about hitting the administrative looters.
Finally, election workers earning less than $1,000 a year would be ineligible for benefits, and the Department of Unemployment Assistance would be empowered to participate in a federal program allowing the agency to intercept federal tax returns for anyone who owes unemployment funds as a result of overpayment.
But the banks can loot trillions and get away with it.
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"Tech barriers impeding checks on banned welfare purchases" by Andy Metzger | State House News Service, March 01, 2013
FITCHBURG — The state’s welfare department still does not have the technological capability to prevent recipients from using electronic benefits transfer cards to buy such items as tobacco, pornography, and vacation services, Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz said Thursday.
The Legislature banned such usage in a July 2012 law after a series of embarrassing disclosures of prurient purchases, but technological barriers remain for the agency overseeing the effort, the Department of Transitional Assistance.
In testimony at a budget hearing convened at the Dukakis Performing Arts Center, Polanowicz said he had directed that Transitional Assistance Commissioner Stacey Monahan make sure public assistance is used only for essential items by confirmed beneficiaries.
“The technology that we’re using with Xerox allows us to block usage by the store,” Polanowicz told the News Service after the testimony. “It does not, at least currently, have the ability to block individual purchases at the store level.”
Health and Human Services Communications director Alec Loftus said no such system exists in the country, meaning that each retailer would have to set up its own system, and he said store owners had been advised of the law’s restrictions.
“For tobacco and alcohol, the things that are banned by law, we sent out communications to all the retailers informing them that they are prohibited from vending those goods to EBT card holders, and announcing the fines,” Loftus said. He said, “We send regular communications informing them.”
Polanowicz sympathized with the difficulty retailers might have in complying with the new requirements.
“If I put my retailer hat on, one can imagine how hard it would be to determine: OK, this person’s in line. They’ve scanned everything. They’re now paying with their EBT. Oh, I have to take these things off,” Polanowicz said. “And the training and education of thousands upon thousands of people at the front end, I’m assuming that the retailers association would not be able to actually do that in a consistent way.”
After attempting to amend the bill, Governor Deval Patrick acknowledged the technological shortfall.
“I sign this bill with the understanding and on due notice that this administration will not enforce what cannot be enforced with respect to the use of EBT cards,” Patrick wrote to the Legislature.
Meaning it's a nothing bill. It's meant to show you how busy they are over there as they do nothing.
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Look, I'm not for welfare recipients spending it on smokes and booze; however, once again government goes after chump change when the real looting is occurring in the suites.
The flip side of that is all the spying power they want to protect us, and yet they can't monitor welfare purchases. I guess that's how the alleged Tsarnaev terrorists ended up on state welfare rolls.
