Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) to current Guilford Police Department (GPD) pension plans are the focus of debate between department retirees and the town at several recent town meetings. Police retirees haven’t received a COLA to their pensions since 2008 and are currently requesting one from the town that they consider “long overdue,” the Board of Selectman (BOS) counter that the police pensions are already generous and any COLA made to the police pension plans would necessitate a COLA for all other town retirees, making it a fiscally difficult for the town.

According to the GPD pension contract, the town is obliged every two years to look at the COLA impact and the BOS is charged with enacting any cost of living adjustments, after input from the town’s Pension Committee.

The town no longer offers these type of pensions and instead uses defined pension plans (401(k)s and the like) for current employees, with the exception of those who have been employed long enough to have been covered by a previous contract, according to Human Resources Director Mitch Goldblatt.

“Some pension plans have [COLA] automatically built in, other pension plans don’t have provisions at all; we’re kind of in between where we do it on a bi-annual basis,” Goldblatt said. “The Pension Committee is contemplating that and will be discussing it again at their next meeting to make their recommendation, or not, to the BOS, who have the final say in any cost of living adjustments.”

Retired officer Jeff Hocking said he and fellow retirees only want what is contractually afforded to them.

“We’re retired, so we don’t have a union, but we have been trying to get the information out to the community about this issue,” said Hocking. “They gave us our COLA every other year for 20 years and since 2008 not a penny. And during this period since 2008, the town has millions in budget surpluses, and said they didn’t have money to provide us a COLA, but seemingly had millions in the budget.”

Hocking was a Guilford officer for 32 years and has been retired for a decade. He said the police retirees have been patient for 14 years, but want and need a COLA to counter rising inflation.

“Everybody is feeling this inflation on every level, especially retirees even more and especially without an increase in 14 years,” Hoicking said. “In our minds it’s pretty cut and dried. We got the language in the contract, for 20 years we got our COLA increase, and they changed it…It shouldn’t be anything other than that. We just want to present the facts on both sides. We don’t want this to look like the politicians fighting the cops, this is not what we want. We gave decades to the town and were very loyal, and we carry a lot of stuff with us from the job, and we’re just asking for a reasonable COLA.”

First Selectman Matt Hoey said several years ago the BOS took a look at all employee contracts with the town to see if COLAs were in order, despite the fact that no obligation to do so was required by other town employee contracts.

“The board per the stipulation of the contract will continue to review the applicability across the board of COLAs to the police department retirees, but in fairness to we’ll be looking at all pensioners,” Hoey said. “The board is awaiting the recommendation from the Pension Committee and a full analysis to the impact on the taxpayers in the town of Guilford. We will give it the consideration that is called for in the union contract. I my mind’s eye, we would need to evaluate cost of living increases for all of the union contracts. If we were to consider one for the police department, in fairness, we should consider one for all of the union retirees.”

The town has gradually moved away from pension plans for its employees over the last decade, according to Goldblatt. “It will be up to the Pension Committee and then ultimately the BOS to decide on whether it’s appropriate to move forward with any adjustment,” said Goldblatt.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misquoted Jeff Hocking as stating, "They gave us our COLA every other year for two years..." The term Hocking stated was 20 years.