C3

Reid Southwick
Telegraph-Journal

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

6 Comment(s)

SAINT JOHN - City solicitor John Nugent told common council this week he would be in a conflict of interest when drafting legislative changes to the city's pension plan, but the politicians voted to allow Nugent to carry on with the work anyway.

Enlarge Photo

Peter Walsh/Telegraph-Journal

City solicitor John Nugent, shown in a file photo, told common council this week he would be in a conflict of interest when drafting legislative changes to the city’s pension plan because he would be affected by any pension reforms.

Council asked Nugent last month to prepare amendments to provincial laws that would change pension benefits, but the city solicitor said in a report Monday night the changes could "cut too close to the bone."

Nugent, a city employee who would be directly affected by any pension reforms, said he had already finished a preliminary draft of the amendments, but he asked council to hire a private lawyer to continue with the work.

"Obviously, providing advice to council with respect to potential changes to my benefits under the plan would place me in a conflict position," Nugent wrote to council.

He said council passed a resolution in 2007 that said the politicians would ask David O'Brien, a lawyer with Saint John-based Barry Spalding, to provide legal advice when the city solicitor was in a conflict of interest.

But council narrowly turned down Nugent's recommendation to seek outside advice and instead voted to allow Nugent to continue his work.

Coun. Bill Farren said he didn't want to spend any more tax dollars on pension reforms when council could not be assured the province would approve the changes.

An MLA must introduce a private member's bill in the legislature and secure a majority vote before the reforms could take place, but Farren was skeptical the bill would pass.

The city's unions have staunchly opposed the pension reforms and Farren said MLAs would not likely endorse a plan that has garnered such resistance.

Farren has said the proposed reforms offer only a piecemeal approach toward reducing the plan's burden on taxpayers while ensuring employees are properly compensated when they retire.

The councillor has said the city could achieve the desired result only by introducing more substantial changes to the plan.

"If any one of the five union groups opposes this, then it's a wash," Farren said. "Now we're going to spend more money to get another lawyer to form in his own words the work that Mr. Nugent has already done - and for what?"

Coun. Bruce Court said he had faith in Nugent's ability to draft changes to the pension plan, but he stressed the city must negotiate with the unions before formally asking the legislature to pass a bill.

"I trust the city solicitor but I am 100 per cent against forced changes to the pension fund without negotiations," Court said.