Boston City Council Advances Disability Pension Raise for Injured Sheriff's Officer

BOSTON -- May 8, 2024, Boston City Council unanimously advanced a home rule petition to raise an injured former deputy sheriff's disability pension to 80 percent of his final salary. The council voted 11-0 Wednesday on Docket 0263 for Brian McPherson, a Suffolk County Sheriff's Department officer violently attacked during an inmate fight on May 13, 2008, who was forced to retire at age 37 with permanent injuries; his application for disability retirement, filed in 2009, was approved retroactively in 2011. Councillor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, chair of the Committee on Government Operations, amended the petition from the requested 100 percent to the 80 percent ceiling allowed under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 32. The council also voted 12-0 in support of state Senate Bill 1165 to protect injured workers from retaliation in the workers' compensation system, and confirmed Nikita Burns to the Boston Zoning Commission's residential seat through October 2026 to resolve quorum problems at that body. Six FY25 budget dockets covering city operations, schools, capital grants, and loan orders remain in the Ways and Means Committee pending further review.