Retired but still getting paid [Boston Herald]

Feb. 28--A retired Lynnfield cop, already collecting a pension check while pocketing thousands in detail pay, has now managed to score taxpayer-funded unemployment benefits -- part of a pattern of public cash grabs that has municipal officials howling to the Patrick administration for reform.

But former police officer Hartley Boudreau insists he's earned the right to the jobless benefits after the town stopped him from earning more detail pay.

So he applied for unemployment last summer -- and on Feb. 17 he got it.

"I figured there was no harm in asking," Boudreau told the Herald yesterday. "They said I was eligible. The town contested it. We had a hearing in January and they sided with me. I don't understand what everyone is making such a big deal about. I'm not breaking the law. I've never broken the law."

Here's how it went down: Boudreau, 70, who retired in 1998 after 32 years as a Lynnfield cop, is collecting a $36,192 pension. State law allows him to earn up to $25,000 in police details, after which earnings must be subtracted from his pension.

The town told him in August that he had earned more than $26,000, and any more detail pay would come from his pension for the rest of the year.

"So, what does he do?" Lynnfield Town Administrator Bill Gustus wrote to Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday in a letter that did not identify Boudreau by name. "He stops working and files an unemployment claim and, surprisingly, his claim is approved."

Thanks to the state Department of Unemployment Assistance Board of Review's decision, dated Feb. 17, Boudreau is now able to collect $90 to $400 a week in unemployment, depending on how much he rakes in for details.

Gustus -- whose letter to Patrick was co-signed by 23 municipal officials from communities as far-flung as Northampton, Orleans, Dedham, Foxboro, Lowell and Worcester -- said the review board's ruling sets a dangerous precedent that could tempt thousands of retired cops.

The officials also are protesting widespread unemployment claimed by:

--Laid-off teachers who receive benefits over the summer, even though they're hired back in the fall.

--Retired teachers hired as temps, who file after those gigs end.

--School bus drivers who collect for the whole summer, school vacations, professional development days and even the day after Thanksgiving.

--Volunteer firefighters who are laid off in their outside jobs. A quirk in unemployment law puts the town on the hook for part of their jobless benefits.

"It's far more widespread than anyone realizes," Gustus told the Herald. "And it costs. It's got to be costing a ton of money," The Patrick administration yesterday ducked questions about the letter and its implications.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said the unemployment insurance division "takes seriously any allegations of fraud and abuse to the UI system and has an active UI integrity program that focuses on UI fraud and abuse cases."

"We have recently received a letter making allegations about a case in Lynnfield, and like all allegations of abuse, we will take action and investigate the matter thoroughly," the statement said.

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