Cost of Corrente Pension Battle Nearly $200k to Providence

Cost of Corrente Pension Battle Nearly $200k to Providence

The city of Providence has spent nearly $200,000 battling a partial pension for former top city official Frank Corrente, a key figure in the Operation Plunder Dome scandal, costing more than it would have to pay out that pension over the last seven years, city records show.

Corrente spent more than three decades in City Hall, much of that time under former Mayor Buddy Cianci. Corrente retired from his post as director of administration in 1999, with a pension of $70,575. Two years later, he was convicted on six corruption-related charges, including racketeering, bribery, and extortion conspiracy.

The city retirement board suspended Corrente’s pension later that year. Then, after Corrente was released from prison, it shrunk it down to $22,231 in 2008, based upon the recommendation of a hearing officer, who noted that Corrente’s first two decades of service were free from any corruption charges.

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See below slides for a timeline.

City losing money on pension battle

The decision led to protracted legal battle, initially pitting then-Mayor David Cicilline, who opposed any pension for Corrente, against the retirement board. Because the city solicitor could not represent both the retirement board and the mayor, two outside law firms were hired for each.

Seven years and two mayors later, the legal bills have started to add up. City records obtained in response to a public records request show that the bills for both firms have totaled $165,439 as of December 2014—more than what the cost would have been of actually paying out the partial pension over the past seven years, an estimated $155,617. (A city spokesman yesterday disputed that calculation, saying that the courts could hypothetically award a higher or lower pension to Corrente, even though court rulings so far have affirmed the partial pension granted by the retirement board.)

One city official says it’s unfortunate that taxpayers have to foot legal bills for two firms.

“Although I didn’t support the retirement board’s decision to award a partial pension to Corrente, I do find it concerning that the city has hired two law firms to represent the executive branch and the retirement board to fight themselves, but at the taxpayer’s expense,” said city Councilman John Igliozzi, who chairs the Finance Committee and is also a council rep on the retirement board.

The cost to the city so far is split almost evenly between two firms: Roberts, Carroll, Feldstein, and Pierce, which represents the city administration, and Oliverio and Marcaccio, for the retirement board.

Elorza spokesman says mayor committed to case

The case has taken a torturous path through the courts.

Under the city’s older version of the Honorable Service Ordinance, Corrente should have lost his pension due to his criminal conviction. (The new version passed in 2011 does not require a conviction.) But Corrente had two separate periods of employment: from 1967 to 1987 and 1990 to 1999. The partial pension award by the retirement board applies to his first two decades of service.

Rulings at the Superior Court level have left the retirement board’s decision standing. Most recently, the state Supreme Court issued an opinion in early March remanding the case back to Superior Court.

After Cicilline left office, Taveras carried on his predecessor’s policy of opposing any pension payments to Corrente. So will Mayor Jorge Elorza, a spokesman said yesterday. “Public corruption at any level is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The administration believes that this matter deserves the full attention and due process of the court,” said the spokesman, Evan England.

The retirement board is comprised of appointees by the mayor, city council, and the city unions. The chairman of the board, city Finance Director Larry Mancini, did not respond to several requests for comment.

Corrente’s attorney, former House Speaker John Harwood, also did not respond to a message seeking comment.

When asked about the cost, England said that more at stake is more than an individual pension. The case could set precedent locally, not only on how decisions are made on pensions for municipal employees with criminal or less-than-honorable records, but also on the powers of a local retirement board to make those decisions.

State Rep. Bob Craven, a former state prosecutor, said the principle at stake is more important than the cost. “It is still a principle that honorable service is a requirement and absence of honorable service—you forfeit your pension,” said Craven, a North Kingstown Democrat who works as a solicitor for East Providence and Charlestown.

Craven said that the possibility that dishonorable service at any point could cost a public worker his or her pension could also serve as a deterrent to criminal activity while in office.

Other corrupt city officials collect pensions

The classic case in Rhode Island, Craven said, is that of former Superior Court justice Antonio Almeida, who lost his entire judicial pension after being charged with taking bribes and kickbacks from an attorney.

In Providence, however, Corrente seems to be the exception in more ways than one. Payments on the partial pension to Corrente, now reportedly in his mid-80s, have been suspended while the case is pending. But other former city employees whose records of service have been tainted by scandal continued to receive their pensions while their cases awaited final court action.

Three were senior brass in the Police Department implicated in a testing scandal: former Chief Urbano Prignano, Capt. John Ryan, Major Martin F. Hames. A fourth top official, Parks Department Supervisor Kathleen Parsons, admitted to embezzling public funds.

In 2010, GoLocalProv first reported that all four were still receiving their pensions. They were still listed on the pension payroll as of 2011. Yesterday, England said the city has exhausted all its legal options in opposing their pensions. 

A fifth former city employee convicted on a corruption charge also is not receiving a pension. So far former Mayor Buddy Cianci has yet to even apply for one. Cianci had $193,573 in his employee pension account and $15,595 in his elected official pension account, as of September last year, city records show.