Boston Council Advances Petition to Boost Injured Deputy Sheriff's Disability Pension

BOSTON — April 19, 2024 — Boston City Council committee hears home rule petition to raise injured deputy sheriff's disability pension to 100 percent. The Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, held a hearing April 19 on Docket 0263, sponsored by Councilor Edward M. Flynn, which would increase Brian McPherson's disability pension from 72 percent of his 2008 salary — the level set when a 2008 inmate assault ended his career as a Suffolk County sergeant at age 37 — to 100 percent of the compensation he would be receiving had he remained employed. McPherson told councilors the combined total of his pension and the earnings he is legally permitted to make amounts only to what he would have earned working straight 40-hour weeks, with no overtime — something colleagues are now routinely forced to work one to three times per week. Councilor Erin J. Murphy pressed for explicit retroactive-pay language in the petition, and Coletta Zapata said written guidance from the Boston Retirement Board is needed before the measure advances, with a hard deadline of July 31 if the petition is to pass in the current state legislative session.