Ex-chief won't get $15K for sick days

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - At the eleventh hour, the Taveras administration has blocked former Fire Chief George Farrell from receiving a $15,131 check for 28 sick days he didn't use during his four years on the job, the Target 12 Investigators have learned.

But Farrell will still receive a separate $27,196 check for 51 unused vacation days, David Ortiz, a spokesman for Mayor Angel Taveras, said Tuesday. The city is required to make that payment under state law, he said.

Both payments were scheduled to be made this coming Friday. But the administration did a partial U-turn on Tuesday and announced that Farrell would not be paid for the unused sick time after all.

"In accordance with city ordinance, the Taveras administration is ending the longstanding practice of paying out non-union employees who are ending their employment with the city for unused sick time unless approved by the City Council," Ortiz said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

It will be the second time Farrell has cashed in accrued days off during the last five years. He also got a $74,516 payment for unused sick and vacation time upon his retirement as city fire marshal in 2006, a year before former Mayor David Cicilline called him back to serve as chief.

Farrell announced his retirement earlier this year, citing his ongoing battle with leukemia. He defended the payments for accrued sick and vacation time, noting that top managers in his department pay more for their health insurance and get less generous pensions than rank-and-file firefighters.

"This isn't a special deal for me today," he told Target 12 prior to the administration's partial change of plans. "I'm not getting special privileges. This has been in place for 30 years."

Scaled-back benefits for management are making it harder to recruit firefighters to become chiefs, Farrell said. "I won't be able to attract new talent in the fire department if there is no equity," he said.

Farrell earned $161,032 in 2009-10, including a $15,250 longevity bonus that was the largest received by any employee in Providence, payroll records show. The size of Farrell's pension payment is still being recalculated to include his four years as chief, city pension administrator Octavio Cunha said.

Paul Doughty, president of the city firefighters union, said Monday the city government does not have to let Farrell cash out his unused time off because he's not covered by the union's collective-bargaining agreement. "We'd ask the Taveras administration to follow the law and deny payment," he said.

Farrell said the fire department's leadership should get paid for accrued sick and vacation days since rank-and-file firefighters do.

"I and all the other chiefs in the Providence Fire Department simply believe that the benefits that we were entitled to for 25 years or more while we were members of the union should not be stripped away solely based on a promotion which takes us out of the union," he said.

Doughty disagreed, arguing the higher pay top officials receive should be enough to compensate them. Farrell "wants the best of both worlds – the astronomical salary and all the union benefits," Doughty said.

Doughty also said the union is discussing whether to scale back the payments for sick and vacation time as part of its negotiations with the Taveras administration aimed at shaving $6 million from the fire department's budget in 2011-12.

It's common practice for Rhode Island cities and towns to let retiring workers cash in their unused time off, though most union contracts cap the amount they can receive, said Dan Beardsley, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns. Management officials like Farrell often have a contract clause that says their benefits must mirror the union's, he said.

"I believe a lot of communities over the past two years, in labor contract and concession talks with their unions – the unions have agreed to reduce the number of days an employee will be eligible to cash out," Beardsley said.

The perk is being debated elsewhere, as well. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie is pushing cities and towns to stop paying retiring workers for unused sick and vacation time, which cost Garden State municipalities $43 million over the past year, according to Bloomberg News.

tnesi@wpri.com / twhite@wpri.com