SPRINGFIELD — Ten years before a stinging audit of the Hampden County Regional Board of Retirement, there was Essex County.
A 2010 audit of the regional retirement board in northeastern Massachusetts exposed lavish travel, patronage and general piggery by its executive director and, to a lesser extent, its board members.
The State Ethics Commission in 2011 whacked former state representative and executive director Timothy Bassett with a $10,000 fine — enormous by that agency’s standards — after Bassett admitted using the county agency as a home base for his private lobbying business. He was collecting a $140,000 annual salary from the board, plus a pension from the state while racking up large fees as a lobbyist, according to published reports.
When a state-mandated audit uncovered these and other troubling findings, public outrage and calls for mass resignations and reforms followed. But, those didn’t come easily.
“There were 23 issues flagged in the state audit and at the same time, our earnings for the year were the lowest in the state,” said Kevin A. Merz, treasurer and collector for the town of Ipswich and a 10-year member of the renamed Essex County Regional Retirement System.
“The towns really knew that change had to happen. But, they refused to leave or make any changes,” Merz added, referring to the board members and Bassett. “So we had to get legislation passed to change the makeup of the board.”
In February, the release of an audit by the state’s retirement commission shone an unflattering light on the Hampden County board, which has employed the same executive director, board members and chairman for decades. The audit examined a period from 2014 to 2017, and the review made only six general findings of fault.
Executive Director Julianne Bartley earns more than $100,000 annually and is niece to former Speaker of the House David M. Bartley. She leads the agency along with board Chairman and Treasurer Richard Theroux, longtime Agawam Town Clerk and Democratic booster, and four additional board members: Patricia C. Donovan; Karl J. Schmaelzle, Patrick O’Neil and Laurel A. Placzek.
The entrenched members have been recently called to task over questionable travel; $235,000 in payments to what appear to be scam companies that send out fake invoices demanding payments for website services; illegal contracts for part-time attorneys; and other financial blunders.
The board has pledged to implement “best business practices” in areas criticized by the auditors.
Most recently, Beacon Hill lobbyist Stephen Buoniconti, a former state senator, resigned from the organization as a part-time attorney. The audit exposed contracts for him and attorney-turned-judge Robert Santaniello as running afoul of state law because they included health and dental insurance benefits at an “eye-popping” 90-10 split for payment in favor of the beneficiaries.
Buoniconti said he was unaware receiving health insurance ran afoul of state retirement law, though he had served as the board’s lawyer for 15 years.
Buoniconti also is Agawam’s solicitor, while Placzek is its treasurer.
Both Buoniconti and Placzek conceded they eschewed the town’s health insurance in favor of the regional board’s benefits because, well, it was cheaper for them. The board on Wednesday voted unanimously to approve a new request for proposals for a new attorney.
Municipal leaders from the 35 communities the regional board serves, as well as retirees in the system, have called for additional resignations from board members. The members have so far resisted.
John W. Parsons, executive director of the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, better known as PERAC, said the state agency has no power to remove board members. And frankly, he added, he feels the board runs fairly well on a day-to-day basis.
“Anything is on the table in terms of certain restrictions we could put in place, or having a person on the ground. But right now they’ve pledged to work with us ... and they’re working to clean things up,” Parsons said.
A recent fiasco of a public telephonic meeting featured an anonymous caller who continually taunted Theroux, as well as terrible audio and a sudden burst of loud hold music that interrupted the dialogue for two long minutes.
While one municipal retiree said he is not fearful his pension will disappear over mismanagement, he was disturbed by the audit and felt the Wednesday meeting’s hiccups reflected the antiquated feel of the board and its operations.
“Like many boards, they need to post their meeting minutes online so people can read them,” said Andrew Fraser, a former Longmeadow Fire Department captain who retired in 2019 after 33 years on the job. “That’s not hard. What’s also not hard is having all their meetings on Zoom, or Webex, or any of these online platforms everyone uses these days.”
Other regional boards, including the systems for Berkshire, Hampshire and Worcester counties, post meeting minutes to their websites — often going back years.
Fraser, who now runs the COVID-19 response team for Longmeadow, is among many retired public employees who have been asked to return to work amid the pandemic. He said his retirement was uneventful and he found his dealings with the board satisfactory — but he wonders what else more scrutiny may turn up.
“I think this certainly deserves more investigation,” Fraser said.
Others say the phone meeting feels reflective of regional retirement boards — vestiges of county government systems that were mostly abolished nearly 30 years ago — as outdated, unnecessary levels of bureaucracy and oversight.
Former Springfield Mayor Michael Albano said he was once a county employee when he served as a probation officer. Those roles, along with many others, were absorbed by the state. It was only when he became mayor that he began to understand the heavy costs of county governments to municipalities.
“I was facing this gigantic deficit and trying to save every penny, so I asked my CFO, how do I get rid of this $600,000 line item we pay to the county commission,” Albano said, noting with a laugh that former County Commissioner Thomas J. O’Connor was one of his biggest supporters during a hotly contested election.
Albano said he saw no particular benefit of paying the assessment in terms of services, and does not see a practical purpose for any form of county government now.
“I would rather spend the assessment on police, road repairs or education than on some undefined county services,” he said.
Another former Springfield mayor, Robert Markel, is now serving as interim town manager for Hampden. Markel is one of the loudest critics of the retirement board, after having served as town manager in Ipswich when that board imploded in Essex County.
During the meeting on Wednesday, Markel pointedly asked whether Theroux committed fraud by submitting invoices, flagged by auditors, that appeared to suggest he charged the board to stay at his own condo on Cape Cod during an industry conference. Theroux refused to answer, on advice of counsel, though he wouldn’t specify if it was a personal attorney who dispensed the advice.
Theroux was paid nearly $30,000 last year in his role as the board’s chairman and treasurer, budget records show. Board members receive $3,000 stipends.
The flap has prompted calls for more audits.
State GOP leaders sent out a press release Thursday entitled: “A new low for Democrats at the public trough.”
“New reports documenting how the Hampden County Retirement Board has been functioning as a public money and benefits bag for career Democrat politicians have prompted Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons to call for comprehensive audits of the commonwealth’s other 105 retirement boards,” the statement said.
Since state audits are required of county boards every three years, a new audit is anticipated for the Hampden County board later this year covering 2018 through 2020.
The matter also has been referred to the state attorney general and inspector general’s offices, along with the state Ethics Commission.
Merz said his impression of the Hampden County board’s posture felt reminiscent of the ousted board in his region.
“They feel that they’re above the law. They feel they have all the power and the right to do whatever they want,” he said.
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