SWEETHEART DEALS FOR HACKS
Triple-dipping on state payroll and fake expenses on taxpayers’ dime
The hack du jour is Richard Theroux of Agawam, who has been happily slurping at the public trough since 1972, when he was 19 years old.
Theroux is a hack’s hack who first came to my attention in 2016 as that rare creature, the triple-dipper — on three public payrolls or pensions simultaneously, totaling $113,000 a year.
That wasn’t nearly enough, I suppose, so Theroux decided to run for state rep, to give himself a fourth public paycheck. He dreamed of becoming Massachusetts’ first quadruple-dipper.
At the time, Theroux told me he “wasn’t in it for the money,” which was fortunate, because after my column ran he was forced to drop out of the rep’s fight.
But now, as Theroux nears the 50th anniversary of his first hack job — his golden jubilee, so to speak — he may be close to getting the boot from his most lucrative remaining phony-baloney job.
Theroux’s ultimate hack redoubt has lately been the Hampden County Retirement Board, or HCRB.
Sounds boring, right? And that’s exactly the way the hacks want it. Out of sight, out of mind. But it’s a gold mine for the 413 area code hackerama.
Hampden County no longer exists as a governmental entity per se. But its Retirement Board still controls millions of dollars collected every year from the cities and towns of “Hampden County” for 1,700 retirees and 3,100 current municipal employees.
Theroux is the HCRB’s chairman and treasurer, making $27,485 a year, including a $2,000 pay raise that went through with no vote by the board.
The executive director is Julianne Bartley. Does that name ring a bell? Her uncle is David Bartley of Holyoke, the former House speaker who last won an election in 1974, but has been collecting a state pension now up to $157,276 since 2004.
One of the two part-time board lawyers listed on the website is Stephen Buoniconti, a former state rep and senator from Agawam who last won an election in 2008, before he lost a race for district attorney even though he was the endorsed Democrat candidate.
Now Buoniconti is a registered lobbyist in Boston, the town counsel in Agawam, and a lawyer for the Retirement Board.
Do you begin to get the picture? Everyone at the retirement board is … forgotten, but not gone.
Alas, even the HCRB is occasionally audited, and last week the state regulatory agency, the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission — PERAC — released its 2014-17 audit. Here are a few of the findings: The board was defrauded of more than $235,000 in what PERAC termed “scams” on its website, paying without question “invoices that contained reference to a contract or order number, these numbers were fictitious … a simple online search would have shown these do not exist.”
The board never looked at their charges, and these weren’t just $6 recurring monthly fees either. They amounted to 119 payments for $235,000, and nobody even noticed something was amiss?
Next, banks.
The HCRB had bank balances ranging from $5.6 million to $27.4 million, so of course they paid no bank service charges. That is, until 2014, when the board suddenly decided to shift its millions to a new bank, which then proceeded to charge the taxpayers $87,229 in “service charges.”
What a deal!
Next: taking care of ex-pols. The two part-time attorneys, one of whom was the ex-state senator, not only got paid, but their health insurance was picked up and they were put into the public retirement system, “which is contrary to law,” according to PERAC.
“In addition to $179,266 in legal fees, the HCRB paid 90% of the attorneys’ health insurance premiums totaling $269,144, for a grand total of $448,210.”
“Highly unusual,” PERAC understated.
And finally, Theroux’s own personal overreach — “Questionable Lodging Expense Reimbursement.”
Like all hacks, Theroux has a place on the Cape, a condo at 11 Hyannis Port Road in Mashpee.
After several “conferences” on the Cape, Theroux sought reimbursement for his “lodgings” at 10 and 12 Hyannis Port Road in Mashpee, which do not exist, unlike his own place at 11 Hyannis Port Road.
“A Board member,” PERAC concluded, “received reimbursement for costs that may not have been incurred.”
The total on the invoices for
Theroux’s four visits to the Cape came to $1,825.
“The submitted documents,” PERAC noted, “raise serious concerns about the legitimacy of these expenses qualifying for reimbursement.”
The Springfield Republican reported that at least one of the invoices was signed by a gentleman who lives at … 9 Hyannis Port Road.
Last Tuesday, Theroux wrote a personal check to the Retirement Board … for $1,825.
A call was placed to Theroux on Friday. He hung up on me.
A call was placed to ex-Sen. Buoniconti. He did not return it.
An emergency meeting of the board will be held Wednesday. Many of the local cities and towns are demanding the resignation of everyone involved in this latest heist in the hackerama.
The PERAC audit has been referred to, among others, the Ethics Commission, the inspector general and the attorney general.
One final thought: the HCRB is just one of 106 of these obscure retirement boards scattered throughout the commonwealth.
If this is what’s going on in Agawam, what the heck is happening in those 105 other boards nobody’s ever heard of ?