Pressured by their retirees, North Attleboro's Retirement Board voted in October to increase their members' COLA from 1.4% to a full 3% retroactive to July. Board member Jack Bush, a retired health agent, asked for the reconsideration vote.

On December 1st, the Gardner Retirement Board reversed an earlier vote for 1.4% and voted 4-1 for a 3% July 1 COLA. Elected member John Wall, a retired firefighter was the moving force behind the vote.

Last June the Gardner Board had voted 3-2 for 1.4% COLA with Wall and Denise Merriam, also an elected member, dissenting. Wall then embarked on a six-month campaign for a new vote and was finally successful in December. City Auditor Calvin Brooks, the Board's ex officio member, was the only member who refused to change his earlier vote.

In Peabody, another retired firefighter, Joe DiFranco, was also on a campaign to reverse his Board's earlier 1.4% vote. With a number of retirees present at the Board's early morning (7:00 a.m.) meeting on December 11, DiFranco, an elected member, was successful in winning reconsideration and ultimately a 3% COLA. The Board then voted 3-2 that the 3% would begin in January, with DiFranco and police officer Dick Bettencourt, also an elected member, unsuccessfully seeking a retroactive vote to July.

In Easthampton, frequently a problematic community, retired police officer Jack Ramsey had been stirring up the troops ever since the Board's 1.4% COLA vote last June.

On December 22, with Jack Walsh, our Association's Western Mass. V.P. and a number of retirees present, Board chairman Jim Dunham, still another retired firefighter, allowed Rich Gwinner, an elected member, to offer a reconsideration vote. Walsh asked the Board "in the spirit of Christmas" to vote for three percent. Ramsey pointed out that many retirees have pensions of less than $12,000 (COLA base) and badly needed the three percent.

City Auditor Joanne Santaniello, the Board's ex officio member, said the increased adjustment would strain the city's budget and negatively impact services. Santaniello attempted to postpone the vote until an absent Board member could be present. She then said that a vote by Dunham could be a conflict of interest because he would benefit from the 3%. After losing the vote, she proceeded to send letters to town officials questioning a conflict of interest.

The new vote, with one member absent, was 3-1 in favor of 3%, retroactive to July. Mayor Michael Tautznick was quoted in a local paper as saying, "The members of the Retirement Board caved in to lobbying pressure and didn't take the responsible action. They continue to be wasteful."

One Board, Somerville, took the unusual step last year of voting for a 2.5% COLA, thus thwarting our hopes for a perfect year in which all eligible retirees and survivors of our 106 retirement systems received full 3% COLAs in 2003.

Association President Ralph White singled out John Wall, Joe DiFranco and Jack Ramsey for the work they did on behalf of the retirees of their communities:

"John Wall publicly took on Gardner's Mayor Daniel Kelly, whom he said was responsible for the earlier 1.4% vote of three Board members. There's no doubt that John's tenacity resulted in the mayor changing his position when the reconsideration vote was taken.

"Joe DiFranco also focused on his mayor, Michael Bonfanti, persistently lobbying the Peabody mayor to encourage members of the board to change their vote when he (DiFranco) moved for reconsideration.

"Jack Ramsey was a veteran of the January, 2000 action when Easthampton retirees were able to convince the City Council to vote to pay half of the retirees' and survivors' health insurance premiums. When Easthampton was a town, such a vote had always failed as a ballot question, Jack did the same person-to-person, one-on-one work on behalf of the COLA that he did on the health insurance vote."

Both Gardner and Easthampton are members of the Commonwealth's Pension Reserves Investment Trust (PRIT) Fund, meaning their pension funds were among the top earners in the state last year. This should bode well for a 3% COLA vote this year.