PROVIDENCE − There has been a shakeup on the state Retirement Board.
When the ballots were counted on Wednesday, four newbies were elected by past and present members of the Employees Retirement System of Rhode Island to seats on the seven-member board.
They included Sandra Paquette and Alan Palazzo, who have been two of the leaders of a retiree coalition agitating for the return of the annual pension increases suspended as part of the massive, 2011 cost-saving drive. The legislature − not the Retirement Board − has control over that decision.
But the Board will give the two retirees a seat at the table when other key decisions come up. Among them: whether to go along with the state actuary’s recommendations on how much state and local taxpayers should put into the retirement system to guaranteed promised benefits, and the assumed rate of return on investments.
The final tally of who sits on the board
Palazzo and Paquette beat incumbents Raymond Pouliot and Roger Boudreau, with whom they have sparred over the years, for the two seats reserved for retiree representatives, according to the unofficial tally that will be certified next week.