New York state plans to admit former firefighter Michael A. Collette into the retirement system on disabled status.
An Aug. 31 letter from the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to the City of Lockport requests payroll information so the comptroller can calculate Collette’s pension — and the amount that the city will pay on top as Collette, 45, has been granted a “performance of duty” disability retirement.
Collette, an 18-year employee of Lockport Fire Department, quit his post in late June, one day before he was to face a disciplinary hearing for alleged misconduct. Off duty the prior 15 months on a workplace injury claim, the Fire Board accused Collette of making “false statements” to secure Worker Compensation (disability) benefits. The charge followed a May decision by a state Worker Compensation Law judge to cut off Collette’s comp payments.
Mayor Michael Tucker took the news as a rude shock when learning that the state has now granted Collette a disability retirement — meaning retirement at a working fire lieutenant’s full pay until he’s 62 years old, paid roughly half by the state and half by the city.
“We’re not paying (Collette) a dime if I have anything to say about it; obviously we’re challenging it,” Tucker said Wednesday. “We had him dead to rights (on alleged disability fraud); the heat was so hot, he didn’t even stick around to see if we were going to fire him. He quit. And now he gets his retirement?”
Tucker has asked state Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, to intervene and try to get the award rescinded.
Collette’s July 8 application for “207a” disabled firefighters’ retirement was his second request; his first request, made last year while he was receiving worker compensation benefits, was denied by the state.
When the comptroller’s office asked for Collette’s employment records to help process the application, the city sent copies of the Workers Compensation judge’s ruling and Collette’s resignation in addition, City Clerk Richard Mullaney said.
Officials wonder whether anyone in the pension division bothered to read the records before approving Collette’s request.
“What’s going on in DiNapoli’s office?” Tucker asked. “I hope the senator has a field day with this; I can’t imagine what plausible explanation there is for granting disability retirement to someone who’s not eligible for disability or retirement.”
Collette went off duty in March 2009, claiming nerve damage from a back injury he said he suffered at work in October 2008, while lifting a box of paper files. Questions about the extent of his disability surfaced soon after, when an anonymous tipster started e-mailing reports of Collette’s off-duty activities to City Hall.
Collette owned MAC Limousine transportation company and, as he reported himself in spring 2009 on Facebook, had bought a home and opened a MAC Limo office in Naples, Fla. — after going on disability leave. In December 2009, Collette surfaced as a paid extra in the motion picture “Henry’s Crime,” playing the role of a security officer giving chase to a suspect in a bank robbery.
The City of Lockport currently is paying a portion of 207a retirement benefits to three former firefighters. Typically, according to Mullaney, the state will pay half of the firefighter’s exiting salary as pension — and the city will pay the remainder to keep the retiree’s pay where it would be if he was still working.
An example: Suppose an exiting disabled firefighter made $50,000 in his last year of work; the pension system and the city each will pay him $25,000 a year; then, In future years, as firefighters’ salaries increase, the city will also pay the retiree for the raises he would have received as well.
Once admitted to the 207a system, Mullaney said, retired firefighters are not allowed to work for pay.
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