It’s a “loan.”  No, it’s a “reallocation.”  No, it’s a “reimbursement.” 

The first two are illegal so the third was concocted (and needs an audit) to justify the city of Hartford allowing Hartford Schools Superintendent Torres-Rodrigeuz to pillage the Other Post-Employment Benefits trust fund (OPEB), a trust fund set up to provide benefits beyond pensions to employees of Hartford Public Schools, not a trust fund to bailout the financial malfeasance of a not-ready-for-prime-time superintendent.

Two months ago, Torres-Rodriguez announced that HPS’s troubled financial situation would be in part propped up by a $4 million loan from the HPS employees OPEB trust fund (“Understanding the $10 Million Bailout of HPS”). 

However, not everyone was comfortable with the idea of a pension trust fund making a loan to a school district off the backs of the employees who are vested in the assets of the fund.

I was among that group.  Seeking answers, I requested from the city of Hartford a legal opinion or other documents which would take the perceived sleaze out of this pension pillage.  As an acquaintance of mine likes to say, “something smells and it’s not like roses.”

It took 23 days, which is fast for government I suppose, but my request was fulfilled with an email which stated, “Please be advised that no formal Corporation Counsel Legal Opinion was produced or was necessary in making a determining regarding the appropriate use of OPEB Trust funds.”  That’s an exact quote, I didn’t mistype the word “determining.”

The email from the city also advised me that there were documents related to my request which were ready for download from their records system.  You can view the three documents, here, here, and here.

I’m no MIT grad (mainly due to their historic support for eugenics and current antisemitic culture), but I was unimpressed with the provided documents and even more convinced that giving Torres-Rodriguez a loan from an employee’s trust fund was dirty, sleazy, and illegal as all get-out.

Apparently minds at the city level began to rethink turning the OPEB into a payday loan service for Torres-Rodriguez and the narrative began to evolve.

When the legality of that grab began to be questioned, Torres-Rodriguez excluded talk of the OPEB portion from the combined total city and state bailout package of $10 million, which she now stated was a $6 million package.

Then, during June’s Regular Board of Education meeting, Torres-Rodriguez presented to the new (and hopefully improved) BOE (five new members were sworn in at this meeting) the first of what will be many questionable and misleading informational slides.  That’s just how she rolls.

As shown in Torres-Rodriguez’s little slide show (view the offending slide here because this information did not make it into the Superintendent’s Report when it was attached to BoardDocs), the original $4 million dollar “loan” from the OPEB to HPS was now a $1.7 million “reallocation” of funds.  What happened to the $4 million loan?  It was illegal, through trust fund language and IRS rules.  If the original loan was legal, I’m sure Torres-Rodriguez would have stuck with the $4 million OPEB loan rather than taking only $1.7 million from the OPEB.  Somebody said, “oops, my bad.”

According to Torres-Rodriguez’s little info slide, the $1.7 million from the OPEB trust fund will be used “to cover retiree health care costs in FY2025.”  Well, that’s a bullshit statement.

Number one, the OPEB trust fund’s purpose is to cover retiree health care costs, why funnel it back to HPS to cover those costs?  Sounds like money laundering.

Number two, the word “reallocation,” which Torres-Rodriguez calls it, means you are taking something meant for one thing and applying it elsewhere.  Which in the context of OPEB trust fund monies, is also illegal. 

And, she states at the bottom of her little slide that this “additional funding” is a “one-time” resource “which means “additions” have to be considered temporary.”  Paying retiree health care costs is not a temporary “addition,” staff in central office are an “addition.”  If these OPEB funds are a one-time resource for temporary additions, Torres-Rodriguez stating that they will be used to cover health care benefits for FY25 does not make sense.  The “one-time” statement by Torres-Rodriguez is just a warning that next year she’ll be back to once again pillage the OPEB.

Torres-Rodriguez states that the OPEB is able to “reallocate” the $1.7 million because it is awash in cash, “about $2 million more than is necessary to cover future retiree health care.”  The OPEB, says the superintendent slash self-described “CEO” and now, apparently, a pension portfolio manager who is guaranteeing that future benefits will not be affected by “reallocating” fund monies now, is 111% funded. 

This is a doubtful statement as the latest documents available show that in 2021 the OPEB was underfunded by 10% and it’s investments loss $750,000 in the third quarter of 2023.  Secondly, as the March 2024 OPEB Quarterly Report shows, the OPEB has only $1.5 million in cash.  What other assets invested in by the OPEB will be liquidated, and what future investment dollars will be jeopardized by this asset liquidation, in order that Torres-Rodriguez’s fiscal malfeasance can be covered up?

Then, on June 21st, only three days after Torres-Rodriguez introduced the “reallocation” narrative, Mayor Arunan Arulampalam comes out and sends the narrative in another direction, a direction called “reimbursement.”

The mayor wrote an op-ed for the Hartford Courant where he stated that HPS will be receiving $4 million (not $1.7 million) from the OPEB trust fund because, check this out, HPS had paid benefit claims on their own in the past for which they never sought reimbursement from the OPEB, $13.5 million over the last 8 years!  Suddenly they want to be reimbursed?  If this is so, why are they only seeking to be reimbursed $4 million, why not the whole $13 mil?  The OPEB has neither amount in cash.  Why did Torres-Rodriguez, only three days earlier, not even mention this “reimbursement” scenario?  And, in the OPEB meeting minutes for April 2024, it is stated that HPS had submitted no requests for reimbursement during March of this  year.  Supposedly, according to the mayor, they will make up for it with a request for reimbursement of $4 million.

Is it a loan?  Is it a reallocation of funds?  Is it a reimbursement? 

If you are a member of any of the twelve unions representing HPS employees, you should get your union president to seek clear, transparent answers to these questions, which means, do not go to HPS for your answers.  If you are a retired HPS employee receiving benefits from the OPEB, you should sue to stop this pillage.

If you are a Hartford taxpayer, you should be concerned.  As Torres-Rodriguez digs herself deeper and deeper into a financial quagmire, she will no doubt stick her hand into the OPEB cookie jar once again, eventually creating a vastly underfunded employee pension benefit fund which the city will next turn to the taxpayer to make up the difference, public services will be cut, the city’s bond rating will suffer, and Mike McGarry will have to run for mayor again.

It’s none of the above.  It’s a mess.