State board sides with former Lynn library trustee

LYNN – A state retirement board has largely sided with former public library trustee Linda Bassett in her bid to keep the Lynn Retirement Board from cutting her pension.The board tried to reduce Bassett’s state pension in April by claiming she missed 12 out of 24 meetings held from 1981 through 1983. The state Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission informed the board by letter this week that only the public library trustees could challenge her trustee service. PERAC also pointed out that trustee bylaws do not contain attendance requirements.”The terms on Trustees and the possible termination of a Trustee would be matters within the real and responsibility of the Trustees, not the Lynn Retirement Board,” the letter stated.PERAC did reduce Bassett’s creditable service, or the length of her work history that can be used in calculating her pension, by eight months. Even with the reduction, Bassett will still receive a $2,582 annual pension reflecting her library service.Bassett, wife of former state legislator and Essex County treasurer Timothy Bassett, receives a $22,000 annual pension that includes her library trustee service.Board Director Gary Brenner called PERAC’s ruling “a compromise” and said board members at their Aug. 25 meeting will have the opportunity to discuss if they want to challenge the ruling before a state administrative appeals board.”They (PERAC) sided with her by saying she did not abandon her position,” Brenner said.The Retirement Board sent Bassett, a Marblehead resident, a letter in April stating in part, “The minutes of Lynn library trustee meetings indicate that although you were listed as a trustee from December 8, 1980 to September 25, 1986, the last meeting that you attended was on March 8, 1984 and you missed 12 out of the 24 meetings held from 1981 through 1983.”Bassett’s attorney Andrew Oatway on May 6 requested board records relating to Bassett’s retirement and all documents concerning “the purchase of time by members for service as Library Trustees” under state law.Oatway told board members only PERAC, not Lynn retirement officials, had authority to cut Bassett’s pension. Oatway on Thursday restricted his comments on PERAC’s decision to saying, “The findings of PERAC speak for themselves.”Timothy Bassett, currently the head of the Essex Regional Retirment Board, was the subject of an investigative report this week alleging that the full-time public employee earned a half million dollars moonlighting as a private lobbyist, something that has raised ethical and legal questions.