To the Editor:

I’m disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to take our case for review. We knew it was a long shot, because the U.S. Supreme Court typically selects only a small percentage of cases from the total number of cases that are submitted for consideration. However, it was important for the retirees to make that attempt, believing strongly that they were cheated by the city of Cranston out of moneys due them by contract. Specifically, the retirees took the position that the pension changes made by the city of Cranston violated the Contract Clause and Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

This case was not about current employees who have not yet retired. It was about civil servant police and fire employees who retired from city employment years prior with contractual promises from the city of Cranston to pay specified retirement benefits. It’s also important to mention that for a number of retirees, that contractual promise was a factor they took into consideration when they made the decision to leave active employment to go into retirement.

Years later, many retirees, now in their elderly years, were suddenly hit with the realization that the city of Cranston wasn’t going to honor the terms of their contracts on which they retired. The city’s decision to change the terms of the cost-of-living allowances was based on the city’s own admitted failure to properly fund retirement accounts over a number of years. The city’s answer for their own failure to properly fund those accounts is now being put on the “backs” of the retirees, a burden that the retirees believe is wrong and should not have happened.

The retirees maintain that the city of Cranston should have made other funding adjustments in the city budget to resolve any shortfalls for the relatively small group of retirees affected. The retirees took the position that the city’s action on not honoring the terms of the retiree’s contracts constituted a clear breach of contract. Now, in the wake of the outcome of this case, the retirees are asking, “What good was having a contract, if the parties to that contract do not abide by the agreed-to-terms contained within that contract?”

David Groeneveld

President,

Cranston Police and Fire Retirees Action Committee