The chairman of the Providence City Council Finance Committee has ordered the city treasurer to stop paying a fire department consultant hired last year.
Councilman John Igliozzi contends that former Fire Chief George Farrell has outlasted a city policy that allows pension recipients to return to city employment for 75 full days or 150 half days per year. But the Elorza administration maintains the policy applies to the calendar year, not the last 365 days.
“At this point, my position is that this special exception should be applied to the fiscal year,” Igliozzi told WPRI.com. “It’s important that taxpayers understand who is being hired in the budget.” Evan England, a spokesman for the Elorza administration, said Farrell has worked 53 days since Jan. 1, which means he is entitled to work 23 full days or 46 half days for the rest of the year before it would affect his $8,494 monthly pension. England said Farrell is only paid for the days he works.
Farrell was brought in last November as part of the administration’s effort to crack down on what it claimed was an unprecedented abuse on injuries on the job following Elorza’s decision to restructure the fire department from four to three platoons. The change required firefighters to go from working an average of 42 hours a week to an average of 56 hours.