State Supreme Court Denies 'Double Dip' for Local Mayor
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State Supreme Court Denies 'Double Dip' for Local Mayor
The state's high court has ruled that the controversial mayor of East Haven may not collect on his firefighter's pension while he is receiving his salary as mayor.
ALM Media
Updated
The state's high court has ruled that the controversial mayor of East Haven may not collect on his firefighter's pension while he is receiving his salary as mayor.
In a 22-page ruling scheduled for official release Tuesday, the court affirmed a lower New Britain Superior Court ruling. One of the key arguments that 65-year-old Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. and his attorney made was that the State Employees Retirement Commission allowed him to collect both his annual mayoral salary as well as his firefighter pension when he was mayor from 1997 to 2007.
But when Maturo ran for mayor three years later and won, the commission's rules changed, and Maturo was told he could no longer collect income simultaneously from both sources.
Representing the commission, Michael J. Rose, a partner with Ford, Harrison in Hartford, told state Supreme Court justices that a state statute had been misinterpreted when Maturo was mayor the first time, allowing him to collect both a salary and a pension. Maturo, a town firefighter from 1973-91, was hoping to collect an annual pension of $43,000, on top of his current mayoral salary of $90,000.
The state's high court, in agreeing with Rose and the commission, wrote that the "retirement services division had notified the plaintiff that its prior interpretation of the act was erroneous and that, henceforth, he would not be permitted to receive a disability benefit (due to a back injury) while employed in any paid position with the town." The high court added: "This court was not persuaded by the plaintiff's claim that the commission was bound by, or should have adhered to, its prior interpretation."
The high court rejected all of Maturo's claims, including that there should have been a formal hearing by the commission. "The plaintiff claims that the commission's decision to provide him with an informal hearing rather than a formal hearing violated both the governing statutes and his right to procedural due process," the state's high court wrote. "The trial court, in rejecting this claim, determined that the relevant procedural statute did not require the commission to hold a formal hearing and that the requirements of due process had been satisfied."
Those who have worked with or know Maturo were mixed on the court's ruling. Those feelings appeared to go along party lines.
East Haven Democrat Councilor Nicholas Palladino, who represents the Second District and is receiving a pension after 26 years on the town's Police Department, told the Connecticut Law Tribune Monday: "The Supreme Court was 100 percent correct."
Palladino said there "are too many people that go out from the Police Department, Fire Department and Public Works and so on with these so-called disability claims in which they are not really disabled and are able to work and do not want to work at that job anymore. I have a problem with that." Palladino said he's looking into having the local laws changed, noting, "If I was a disabled police officer and could not be a police officer because of that disability, then how can I be an armed security officer in New Haven? There are several people doing that now." In Maturo's case, Palladino said, "If you are disabled and the town is giving you a pension then you should not be able to go back to that town and get another job and another paycheck."
However, Michael Cronin, staff attorney for Senate Republicans, said, "I think it is unfair that something [a pension] he legally collected and earned as a firefighter is now being taken away from him."
At the time that Attorney General George Jepsen "came up with the interpretation saying it [collecting pension while employed as mayor] was not legitimate and he lost his firefighters disability pension, we, the Senate Republicans and others, tried to clarify that and go to the prior interpretation of the law," Cronin said. Because the law applies to only a few people, Cronin said he does not believe there will be any long-term implications of the court's ruling.
"The universe of people this applied to in the state is very small; there are maybe one or two other people in the same situation," Cronin said Monday.
Maturo has made national and statewide news on several other fronts in the past. In 2012, he was seen as having made disparaging comments about East Haven's Latino community. At the time, Maturo said would increase dialogue with local Latinos by inviting them to come eat tacos, a remark that sparked outrage from state officials and immigrant advocates who were already upset over allegations of police mistreatment of Latino's in East Haven. Maturo ended up apologizing for the comment.
In addition, a lawsuit was filed against Maturo in 2015 by a former Town Hall secretary who claimed she was harassed by the mayor. The lawsuit claimed that harassment included, but was not limited to inappropriate remarks and obscene gestures. During one incident in 2013, the secretary claimed Maturo exposed himself to her in his office.
Maturo was represented in the pension case by Lawrence C. Sgrignari, a member of Gesmonde, Pietrosimone, Sgrignari in Hamden, Sgrignari could not be reached for comment. Rose also did not return a call for comment.
