Injured MA Firefighter Faults City for Pension Cuts

SPRINGFIELD, MA—Since he was blown up in a gas explosion, Michael Basile says his life has been a poop sundae, only he did not use the word poop.

Basile was one of the city firefighters injured when Score’s Gentlemen’s Club exploded on Nov. 23, 2012. The blast leveled the club, damaged several buildings on Worthington and Chestnut streets, and injured at least 18.

The blast blew out Basile’s ears and injured his hand, and he had trouble breathing in the thick, heavy smoke. Still, he spotted and rescued two bloodied children who staggered out of a building near ground zero.

Not long afterward, he felt irritable and anxious among family and co-workers, and became fearful of being out in public. The symptoms were diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Basile returned to work five weeks after the explosion. But his firefighting career came to an end on June 15, 2015, when he had a panic attack while on a ladder at a structure fire, and he abandoned his post and his fellow firefighters.

His supervisor advised him to take sick leave the following day, and he never worked again. By November, a doctor examined him and concluded his PTSD prevented him from working as a firefighter. On Dec. 11, the fire department started the process of involuntary disability retirement, and it was approved on June 6, 2016, nearly a year aft the panic attack.

And with that, his firefighting career was over after 4½ years.

Meanwhile, mood swings, irritability, and violent outbursts ended his relationship. His fiancee moved out, taking their young son with her.

Basile, now 38, still suffers from anxiety and stress while out in public or in new situations, and said he cannot hold another job.

Like he said, it’s a poop sundae.

And the cherry on the top is that the city Retirement Board says he owes $50,000, and is withholding a portion of his monthly pension checks until it is paid back. State law entitles the city retirement system to a portion of the settlement Basile received from Columbia Gas after the explosion, officials said.

Basile’s pension deduction for more than two years had been $500 a month. As of January, he still owed $39,000. Recently he was notified that the deduction will double to $1,000 per month.

“Whenever I get a letter from the Retirement Board, I feel it in the pit of my stomach,” he said.

The increased deduction means his annual $47,590 pension will be cut to $35,580. In his last full year with the fire department, Basile earned $56,021, according to city records. The year before, his pay was $69,000 including overtime.

Springfield gas explosion injures at least 18, officials call no loss of life 'a miracle on Worthington Street'

The blast leveled 1 downtown business, heavily damaged a dozen nearby buildings and blew out windows in dozens of others in a blast and shock wave that was felt as far as 10 miles away.

State law allows public pensions to recoup the cost of paid sick leave and any medical costs associated with a workplace injury. In some cases the employee pays a lump sum, but in other cases, like Basile’s, the money is deducted from the monthly pension payment.

In Basile’s case, he accepted a $155,000 settlement from Columbia Gas on Feb. 26, 2015. After paying his lawyer, he pocketed $98,000.

Executive Director Susana Baltazar said Basile never notified the Springfield Retirement System of the settlement, either while it was being negotiated or while his disability retirement was being approved. The Retirement Board did not learn of the settlement until six months after his retirement was approved. It then took steps to claim $50,000, or 32.2% of the gross settlement amount.

“Members wrongly believe they can settle a third-party claim, keep the settlement and receive full disability benefits,” she said. “That approach or conclusion is contrary to the statutory requirements.”

Baltazar said Basile should not have been surprised by the increase in his monthly deduction. The $500 amount was negotiated in March 2017. At the time it was understood that the amount was “subject to periodic review." She also said the $500 figure was just “an initial amount," and and dependent on a ruling by the state Division of Administrative Appeals in Basile’s challenge to the Retirement Board’s action.

On May 3, Administrative Magistrate Judithann Burke decided that the Retirement Board is within its rights to seek repayment from Basile, and that the amount of $50,000 was “not arbitrary or unduly burdensome.”

Before the deduction increase becomes final, Baltazar said, it must be reviewed and approved by the state Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission. “Our best estimate is that it may be set at $1,000, but it could go higher,” she said.

Baltazar said that, if Basile had notified the Retirement Board of the settlement prior to his retiring, the board would have had more flexibility in how it could collect its share. If the board had been notified of his claim when it was filed, the attorney could have pushed for a larger settlement to account for the deductions, or a smaller lump-sum payment could have been negotiated, Baltazar said.

There were three other city employees injured in the explosion who received settlements from Columbia Gas. Baltazar testified before the Division of Administrative Appeals that each of the settlements was substantially higher than what Basile received — in the vicinity of $900,000. In those cases, the retirement system negotiated payments of $285,000 to $290,000, or 31.7% to 32.2%, which is in line with Basile’s 32.2%.

Basile asked how he was supposed to know to contact the Retirement Board about the Columbia Gas claim when he filed it before he considered retiring. He was awarded the settlement months before his panic attack on the ladder. Until then, he had no plans to retire.

“They know this, and it’s disingenuous to suggest that I excluded them from a negotiation that they had no statutory rights to,” he said.

Burke, in her appeal ruling, rejected Basile’s claim that his retirement was the result of the panic attack and not lingering issues from the gas explosion three years earlier. Burke noted that medical records and testimony from experts all concluded the two events were related.

“The cause of his disability was the gas explosion,” Burke wrote.

Basile said he is dependent on the pension to live. He said his mortgage and child support payments total around $1,600 per month.

He said he has been barely staying afloat for the last two years with the $500 deduction. Doubling the deduction will be the difference between floating and sinking, he said.

Basile is enrolled in Holyoke Community College and hopes to earn a degree in nursing someday. He had enrolled previously, but the increased anxiety led him to drop out.

“I’ve had to learn how to go to Costco again. I had to learn how to go to Stop & Shop again. I had to learn how to go to the park with my son again,” he said.

He said he had to give up being a tattoo artist, his second job, because the hand injury suffered in the explosion left him unable to draw up to his own standards. A good tattooist needs hands like a surgeon, he said. Holding a vibrating, one-pound ink gun for hours at a time and making perfect lines takes a level of dexterity he no longer feels he has. Some months back he sold his equipment.

Tiffany Matrone, owner of Bang Bang Body Arts in Northampton, said Basile was an excellent tattoo artist and everyone at the shop loved and respected him. He spent years learning the craft and traveled as far as Asia to learn different styles.

She said he quit some time ago, citing PTSD and stress related to money, personal issues and his dispute with the Retirement Board. Matrone said she offered to have him staff the front counter, but he declined.

She said she did not notice any issues with his hand affecting the quality of his work. “All his lines were straight,” she said.

Asked if she would hire him back, she said, “Oh, my God, in a second!”

Stacy Melcher, a Longmeadow therapist who has been counseling Basile since days after the gas explosion, said he continues to suffer from heightened anxiety. She agreed to speak to The Republican about his condition only after Basile gave permission.

“I see the explosion as the beginning,” she said. “Since he has been out on disability, it has been one thing after another after another.”

Melcher said Basile’s condition could best be described as a state of heightened and nearly continuous anxiety. She described it as the feeling of “being chased by a bear 24/7.”

Even for something like going to a restaurant, she said, Basile will insist on sitting with his back to the wall and will continually scan the scene looking for an emergency. He sweats continuously and needs to have multiple changes of shirts with him whenever he goes out.

“Can he recover? Yes. Can he recover while he is worried about money? It’s going to be harder,” she said.

Sitting on the steps of his East Longmeadow home, Basile said he wanted to be a firefighter all his life. He finished first in his academy class and remembers being nervous as he delivered the address at commencement.

Even with PTSD, he wanted to stay on at the Fire Department, but in a position that would be less stressful than that of a front-line emergency responder. Failing that, he would have accepted another city position. Neither was offered, and he questions if that is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

His house, which he purchased in 2012, six months after he was hired, is all that he has left from his firefighting career. He fears that he will be unable to afford it.

Inside there are boxes of medical files and paperwork related to his retirement. The dining room table is covered with documents chronicling the dispute over the $50,000 deduction.

“I’m not saying they are entitled to anything,” he said. “I just wish they would leave me with the means to keep what I have left.”

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