Underride effort continues

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD Paul Peter Nicolai blasted Mayor Charles Ryan last week for the settlement that removed former Police Chief Paula Meara from her position, but Ryan countered that Nicolai is wrong in his assumptions about the value of the buy-out.

Nicolai is the attorney behind the campaign to place a question on the ballot which would return the city to its pre-1991 tax rates and eliminate $15 million from the city's revenues. Nicolai submitted 600 petitions to the city's election office on Tuesday for validation. He said he will turn in another 300 petitions shortly. The question will need the validated signatures of 6,600 registered voters by August 2 in order to be placed on the ballot.

Nicolai has been highly critical of how the city budgets its funds and believes that if passed the "underride" would send a message that voters want greater accountability.

"Charlie [Ryan] and the gang don't want the question asked," Nicolai said.

Nicolai told Reminder Publications in an interview on Wednesday during Hot Talk with Tony Gill that the buy-out was not $350,000 but rather has a value of over $1 million.

Nicolai said that because three retroactive pay increases were included in the buy-out that Meara would have a much larger pension that would, if she lives to the age of 80 (the average life expectancy for an American woman), cost the city over $1 million.

"When Ryan announced the deal, he didn't come clean," Nicolai charged.

Nicolai then speculated that any other city department heads who need to be removed could demand similar buy-outs because there have not been any performance evaluations written in the past 10 years.

Nicolai said the Meara situation demonstrated that "you can hold a department ransom for a million dollars."

Ryan told Reminder Publications that recent court rulings and the rules of the Retirement Board would prevent Nicolai's scenario from taking place. He said Meara's pension would be determined by her regular wages and that the buy-out amount would not influence it.

The Chair of the Finance Control Board, Alan LeBovidge, has already sent a letter to the Retirement Board about Meara, Ryan added.

Because the City Council voted not to support home rule legislation that would have allowed the city to strip Meara of her Civil Service stature, Ryan said the city had no choice but to offer her the buy-out in order to remove her in a timely fashion.

Meara's management of the Police Department had been severely criticized by a report by an outside consulting firm.

Ryan said that Nicolai is mistaken that the city will have to offer a settlement to remove any other department head. As mayor he has the power to fire any department head and has already done so.