FOX25 Investigates: Triple dipping MBTA pension chief's contract remains secret

BOSTON — Michael Mulhern, the MBTA pension chief who FOX25 Investigates uncovered is headed for a publicly funded triple dipper retirement, won’t let taxpayers see his contract – a document some of his own board members at the secretive pension system haven’t even seen.

FOX25 has been asking for two weeks to see Mulhern’s contract, which pays him $282,000 a year, but the taxpayer-funded pension board won’t publicly release it.

“His employment contract with the MBTA Retirement Fund is private,” said a spokesman for Mulhern, the executive director for the T’s pension system.

Boston Carmen’s Union President James O’Brien, who is also a member of the MBTA Retirement Fund Board, didn’t have a lot to say when FOX25 Investigates asked him about Mulhern’s contract.

• FOX25 Investigates: Have you seen Mike Mulhern's contract?
• O'Brien: I have not.
• FOX25: Do you think you should be able to see it?
• O'Brien: Yes.
• FOX25: Are you going to request to see it?
• O'Brien: Sure.

Other MBTA pension board members – Department of Revenue Commissioner Michael Heffernan and MassDOT board member Betsy Taylor – declined to speak to FOX25 Investigates about the contract or anything else dealing with the MBTA retirement fund.

Former State Treasurer Steven Grossman, who was named to the T pension board last year to bring transparency to the secretive agency, told FOX25 he hasn’t seen Mulhern’s contract and has no idea what it includes.

FOX25 Investigates already uncovered one perk in Mulhern’s employment agreement that has him collecting three separate state-funded retirement checks when he steps down from his job in August.

Taxpayers have contributed more than $167,000 to a retirement fund set up for Mulhern during his time as head of the MBTA Retirement Fund. He also began receiving a nearly $65,000 annual pension check from the T when he retired as MBTA General Manager in 2005 at age 46. He also receives more than $84,000 a year directly from the MBTA as part of a special retirement perk for union workers who become managers.

Mulhern’s current contract was signed in February 2012 – before any of the current board members were appointed, according to Mulhern’s spokesman.

Mary Connaughton of the watchdog Pioneer Institute said taxpayers could be paying an unknown amount of hidden benefits to Mulhern through his contract.

“These are public dollars,” said Connaughton. “We have a right to know how they're spent… There could be sick time buyouts, vacation buyouts. There could be additional pension perks. We don't know if there's parking allowances, car allowances. We don't know what the arrangement might be for severance.”

The extra scrutiny comes as just as the T announced its workers’ pension fund is projected to fall a billion dollars short. Some have called for the MBTA pension system to be folded into the much larger state retirement system to bring the fund under control.

Taxpayers contributed $79 million to the MBTA pension fund this year and that annual payment is only expected to grow.

“Back in 2007, the T was putting in $37 million dollars a year and based on current projections, we’ll be over $100 million by fiscal ’21,” said MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve. “That’s all taxpayer money.”

Cox Media Group