The saga of severance payments to retired town employees continues, as evidenced by the extensive coverage of the subject in last week’s Phoenix. And while the article was very detailed, there are some other important factors that were not addressed.

As a retired municipal employee, I’m very familiar with the many different ways cities and towns handle sick leave, which was one of the subjects of last week’s article. One important fact that was not mentioned in the article was that with almost no exception, state and municipal workers in Rhode Island do not not pay into nor are eligible to collect TDI.

Because of this policy, a state or municipal worker can only utilize their sick pay should they contract a long-term injury or illness while off duty, as opposed to almost all workers in the private sector, who can collect TDI for off the job injuries or illnesses.

Therefore, I have no problem with Bristol town employees cashing out unused sick days when they retire, as accumulating these sick days is their only financial safety net in case of a long term, non-job related injury or illness.

And while I support the town’s policy on accumulating and cashing out unused sick days upon retirement, doing the same with unused vacation time is a completely different issue. I am a firm believer in employees utilizing their vacation time, as taking vacation time is vital to physical, mental and emotional well being.

Allowing town employees to accumulate dozens of unused vacation days year after year and cash them in at retirement is poor public policy, and I commend Town Administrator Steve Contente for putting an end to that practice.

There is not a single town employee who is irreplaceable, and an employee not taking dozens of vacation days and using it as some sort of bank account to be monetized at retirement is simply gaming the system.

And what should be stressed is that the list of former town employees highlighted in last week’s article who cashed in those unused vacation days did not do so with the cooperation and blessing of our current elected town leaders, and instead were given these gold plated severance packages by former elected leaders, who were either asleep at the switch, or were giving out sweetheart deals to their friends and/or political supporters.

Whichever was the case, it's good to see our current town administrator and town council putting these new severance policies in writing, so that those types of abuses will not happen in the future.

Also, while the article in last week’s Phoenix did an excellent job of exploring severance packages as they relate to unused sick leave and vacation time, there are numerous other factors that make up an employee’s total compensation. Some of these factors include minimum years of service and age requirements to qualify for a pension, health coverage both before and after retirement, and other terms and conditions that vary for different classifications of employees. And while I continue to believe that the total compensation for Bristol town employees is quite low compared to other Rhode Island state and municipal workers, that is a story for another day and time.

Mike Proto
Bristol