Some straightforward questions for Gov. Deval Patrick, as well as for Treasurer Tim Cahill, in light of the governor’s unusual Sunday press conference at the State House to announce his support for various reforms to the state pension system.

“The gaming of the public retirement system by a few undermines the system’s credibility and ultimate sustainability for all public workers and makes citizens question the integrity of their government. This is unacceptable,” the governor said in a statement released Sunday afternoon by his office.

Questions for Patrick (as he tries to reclaim the reformer mantle he campaigned on):

Don’t the steps taken in the 1990s by Jeffrey Simon, recently appointed by Patrick to be the state’s $150,000-a-year “stimulus czar,” constitute exactly the sort of “gaming of the public retirement system by a few” that Patrick declares “unacceptable”? After being fired as the head of a state development agency, Simon applied to have six years as a $150-a-year member of the Ipswich School Committee count toward the 20 years of service he needed to qualify for pension payments. Then he appealed to a state administrative judge after being turned down by the Essex County retirement board. 

If Simon did “game” the system, wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect Patrick to acknowledge that Simon’s appointment seemed to condone such behavior — and ask the 58-year-old developer to step down from his role in overseeing the state spending of federal stimulus money?  If Patrick does not replace Simon, why should this appointment by the governor not be seen as part of the problem that leads citizens to “question the integrity of their government”?

Question for Cahill (as he ponders an “I can do better” campaign for governor):

The state retirement board, which reviews pension applications — and must sign-off on the so-called Section 10 pensions, which allow terminated employees to begin collecting early, lucrative pensions — operates under the state treasurer’s direction. Five years ago, Cahill vowed to do something about this.  “We not going to accept that this is the way things are done because that’s the way they’ve always been done,” Cahill told CommonWealth. In the more than six years he has been in office, what has Cahill done to reform this and other loopholes in state pension law?

Michael Jonas works with Laura in overseeing CommonWealth Beacon coverage and editing the work of reporters. His own reporting has a particular focus on politics, education, and criminal justice reform.