Corrente can keep partial pension

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A superior court judge has upheld the Providence Retirement Board’s decision to award convicted City Hall official Frank Corrente a partial pension.

The decision marks a defeat for former mayor David Cicilline, who filed a suit in an attempt to completely revoke Corrente’s pension.
In 2008, the Providence Retirement Board voted to give Corrente a partially reduced pension, ruling he could collect for his first term of service from 1967 to 1987. They stripped him of the more lucrative benefit he later earned for serving as convicted former mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci's director of administration.

The ruling means Corrente can collect about $1,800 a month in pension payments.

In 2001, Corrente was charged in the federal investigation dubbed “Operation Plunder Dome” and later found guilty. He was sentenced to 56 months in a federal prison.

His pension payments were immediately suspended following the conviction.

Superior Court Judge Mark Silverstein upheld the Retirement Board’s decision but recommended the board deal with a request by Corrente to be credited for taxes he paid on the other pension.

Following the board’s 2008 ruling, then-Mayor Cicilline declared the decision was an outrage and vowed to fight it in court. The judge ruled Cicilline did have the legal authority to intervene, but denied the actual request by Cicilline – now a congressman – in Wednesday’s ruling.

Cicilline's office has not yet responded to a request for a comment.

twhite@wpri.com