This month we are looking at the Lynn Retirement System and the latest actuarial study as prepared by Jim Lamenzo, actuary of the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC).

Looking back at the Year 2000 study, the average salary for Lynn’s 1,783 employees was $36,979. In the 2006 study there are now 1,460 employees with an average salary of $44,825. There was a 22% decrease in the number of employees and a 21% increase in the average salary over the six-year period.

In Year 2000, there were 1,221 retirees and survivors on the Lynn pension roles. Six years later, 2006, finds Lynn with 1,285 pensioners, a scant increase of less than 5%. Lynn’s retirees received an average pension of $14,624 in Year 2000. This year, the average pension is $20,504, an increase of 40%.

These percentage increases, salary dollars vs. increases in pension dollars, were similar to studies we have made of other communities. However, the loss of employees was not proportionate to the increase in the number of retirees in Lynn.

Gary Brenner, director of the Lynn Retirement Board, explained that the city closed two large city-owned nursing homes during that period.  “Many of these employees were not eligible to retire and left to work in private nursing homes or elsewhere,” he said. Also, due to layoffs or early retirements in many departments, there was a decline in the number of employees. “Jobs just weren’t being filled when people left,” he said.

By way of comparison, pensions in cash-starved Lynn are on the high side when compared to similar cities in eastern Mass, most of which are in the $18,000 range. On the other hand, affluent Marblehead, a neighboring town with its own retirement system, has an average pension of $15,766 and an average employee salary of $38,273.

Data on municipal pensions of retirees do not include teachers. Teachers, with the exception of Boston, are members of the statewide Teachers’ Retirement System. The most recent data on the Teachers’ System (2005) showed an average pension of $29,182. The average for state retirees (2005) was $20,513.

In Lynn, like every other retirement system, there is a steady increase in the number of older retirees. In 2000 there were 122 Lynn retirees age 85-100. In 2006, there are 150.

Leo Gaudet: Lynn Retiree

Longtime Association member Leo Gaudet, at age 92, falls into the “older” category.

Gaudet has lived his entire life on Williams Avenue in East Lynn. He was born at 119 Williams Ave, grew up at 72 Williams Ave, and after four tough years fighting in the Pacific during World War II, bought a house with a GI loan at 170 Williams Ave, where he still lives.

Life was rugged in his boyhood. “I was one of nine children. There was no heat except for the kitchen stove, but most families faced the same difficulties,” he said.

He worked for the Lynn DPW until age 62 when he retired because of a heart problem. “I loved my job but had to stop working.” With his children now grown and wife Virginia recently died, he lives alone.

“With Lynn being the shoe manufacturing center of the world and the General Electric Plant employing seven or eight thousand workers Lynn was a booming city compared to what it is now,” he recalled.

Leo’s pension is now around $14,000. “The COLAs have helped and I’m not complaining,” he said. He supplements his income through an earlier savings plan and “gets by OK.” Leo’s father lived to be 100.

Says Leo, “I was born in Lynn and will die in Lynn. People criticize this city, but it’s my city and I never wanted to live anywhere else.”