Boston violates pension law a third time, panel finds

The Boston Globe reports:

The Menino administration approved a lucrative consulting job for a retired State Police detective who was already earning a sizable public pension, a move that a city watchdog agency says violated state law.

Retired detective lieutenant Brian M. O’Hara was paid nearly $90,000 last year as a fingerprint analyst for the city, even as he collected a $77,000 pension from the state, according to the Boston Finance Commission. His hiring violated a state law that limits the number of hours and the salary that people who are receiving government pensions can earn if they return to the public sector, the commission said.

The Finance Commission’s finding marks the third time in less than a year that the city has been reprimanded for violating the same pension law.

“The history of this contract is an example of lax contract practices,’’ the commission’s executive director, Matthew A. Cahill, wrote in a letter to Mayor Thomas M. Menino last week.

They sure are special.