Tag: public records

A New Era of Pension Transparency In Boston? Not So Fast.

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Last week, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) agreed to disclose its member’s pension benefits and to beef up its previously inadequate annual financial reports.

The retirement fund, called the “T” Fund, is among the most tight-lipped in the country because it is not required to follow public records laws.

But a Boston Herald editorial warns us not to cheer for this measure quite yet. The newspaper calls the agreement a “half-measure” that could easily be reversed. From the Boston Herald:

A deal struck between the MBTA and a union representing 3,000 of its workers to disclose more information about employee pensions is a disappointing half-measure. A mere contractual agreement, it could easily be revised in the future. To ensure public access to this vital financial information the disclosure agreement needs the force of law.

Data on T pensions has long been shrouded in secrecy. The MBTA retirement fund was originally formed as a “private” trust, and state courts have upheld that status. That means neither MBTA fare-payers nor state taxpayers have the legal right to data on the pensions that they subsidize.

Amid public pressure over the fund’s secret operations — the board’s investment decisions are private, too, and its meetings aren’t open to the public — Beacon Hill last year passed a law intended to subject the T’s pension fund to state public records and open meeting laws.

But opponents of the new requirement resisted the effort, and actually succeeded in convincing the state’s supervisor of public records that the fund still wasn’t required to open its books.

So much energy wasted, all to keep the public from examining data that should be available for anyone who’s ever swiped a Charlie Card to examine.

The deal struck last week requires the union to turn over data on employee pensions to the T monthly, and the T will then post it on the state’s Open Checkbook website. We are supposed to greet this development with cheers.

But we’d be curious to know what T management had to give up during negotiations to secure the agreement. And we’d note once again that a provision like this negotiated into a labor contract could easily be negotiated out in the future.

The “T” fund is still refusing to disclose documents related to investment losses associated with certain hedge funds.

 

Photo by Truthout.org via Flickr CC License

Judge: Florida Violated Open Records Laws When It Stonewalled Pension Record Requests, Sent Investigators To Man’s Home In “Chilling” Incident

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Over the last few years, Curtis Lee—Jacksonville resident and retired pension attorney—has filed dozens upon dozens of public record requests relating to the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund.

But Lee claims that instead of getting access to the public records he requested, he was stonewalled by the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial District.

In one instance, says Lee, the Office waited a full year to provide an initial response to his requests. In another, the Office sent investigators to Lee’s home to tell him to stop contacting the Office and to question him as to his purpose for requesting the documents.

So Lee filed a lawsuit against the Office alleging they violated public records laws with their actions.

And the law gave Lee some solace this week when a judge sharply criticized the Office and ruled that they will have to pay for all of Lee’s legal fees. The judge, however, did not rule that the Office intentionally broke public records laws, which would have carried more serious penalties. More from the Florida Times-Union:

A judge ruled State Attorney Angela Corey’s office broke Florida’s public-records law, scolding the prosecutor’s office for sending investigators to question the citizen in his home and never demonstrating why the unusual visit was “necessary and appropriate.”

…

Judge Karen Cole also criticized Corey’s office for refusing to accept Lee’s cash for records and in some cases taking more than a year to provide even an initial response.
The State Attorney’s Office will have to pay Lee’s legal fees for his lawsuit against it. Cole will need to figure out exactly how much that is. Lee’s attorney, Brooks Rathet, said it should be somewhere around $20,000.

The State Attorney’s Office also violated public records laws by requiring the public to pay for records with business checks, cashier’s checks or money orders. Cash and debit cards were not accepted.

To get a money order, Lee and others had to pay a third-party service a fee. That, Cole said, “unlawfully burdens” citizens. From now on, the State Attorney’s Office has to accept cash for records. If the office wants to, the judge said, it can also allow other types of payment.

Cole also described how the State Attorney’s Office violated the law by taking too long with its response to requests.

As one example described, Lee sent Corey’s office six letters with 27 categories of public records requests in February 2011.

About five days later, two State Attorney’s Office investigators came to Lee’s door, according to Judge Karen Cole’s final judgment.

Sending investigators to tell someone to stop calling the State Attorney’s Office “would have a chilling effect,” Cole wrote, for most people. Most people might not have continued requesting records after a visit like that, she wrote.

After the judgment, the Office told Lee that they would produce the records he had requested by Thursday, August 14.

Lee filed a similar lawsuit against the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund. Lee won certain aspects of that case, but the case is now being appealed to the Supreme Court by the fund.