Hawk and the coop-Sun Chronicle column

Sun Chronicle editor Mike Kirby has penned this column about pension abuses at the Bristol County Sheriff's office. Kirby notes that while technically within the pension rules, the sheriff has been able to avoid scrutiny. He thinks the county system is a main reason for the lack of accountability.
He writes,

"And that's why a guy like Hodgson can claim to be a hawk while allowing the chicken coop to get robbed."

It is the taxpayers who are paying ...

... for these pensions. No small wonder that the pension fund has a huge unfunded liability. The most egregious example from Kirby's column,

"... Robert Tweedie, who served as a part-time, on-call pharmacist for the New Bedford Board of Health for 22 years, making $2,200 a year. In 2001, Hodgson hired Tweedie for a $77,000-a-year pharmacist job. 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."

That means after paying Mr. Tweedy $48,400 over 22 years, the taxpayers will be paying him over $46K for the rest of his life based on his three years on Faunce Corner Road.

Sheriff Hodgson defends his practices.

Time for a new Sheriff in town.
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Bristol Sheriff department pensions questioned

The Boston Globe had an article here about Bristol County Sheriff Department employees who managed to boost their pensions or retire early by gaming the system. That's my take at least. In the article, Sheriff Hodgson argues that he doesn't make the rules but it sure seems like he could try to help out the taxpayer by not allowing these kinds of things to go on.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, ...

... IT'S A DUCK!!!
The Bristol County taxpayers are on the hook for millions in retirement benefits that could have been avoided. That is wrong, but not outside the rules. Time for a new sheriff in town.
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Bristol Sheriff in the news

There were a couple of news stories about the Bristol County Sheriff, Mr. Hodgson today.
The Herald News reports that Sheriff Hodgson has been ordered to repay the $5 daily fees that he collected from inmates during the 2002-2004 period. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled the sheriff was not authorized to assess the inmate fees.
The Chronicle reports that Representative Quinn has filed a Public Records Act complaint with the Secretary of State's Public Records Division charging that the Sheriff had failed to comply with his request for records. The act, MGL chapter 66, section 10, requires a response ...

... to a public records request within ten days. Mr. Quinn said in the story that other state and county agencies had responded with in the time frame of the statute and only the Bristol Sheriff had not. I was not able to locate the Chronicle article online, sorry, no link.
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