Groton — A former Groton town councilor, now free to publicly criticize the town's treatment of retirees, appeared before the town council last week to defend her husband, a retired town police captain, for receiving a cost of living increase.

Former Republican councilor Karen Morton told the council on Jan. 2 it has a responsibility to meet its obligation to retirees. When her husband approached the town seeking an increase for himself and four police department colleagues, it was used as a political weapon against her, she said.

"It would seem that once employees walk out the door, they are forgotten by the town in spite of assurances to the contrary," she said.

When employees retire from the Groton Town police department, they are told their monthly pension benefit will remain the same for five years, and then benefits will be reviewed every other year for a potential cost of living adjustment, she said. Police department employees are different from other town retirees because they don't pay into Social Security and are ineligible to receive Social Security benefits on their town earnings.

Matthew Morton, who retired 15 years ago and served 32 years with the town police department, said he approached the town council asking about a cost of living adjustment about a year ago, because his letters to the town had gone unanswered for years. Morton is ineligible for Social Security benefits unless he takes another job, he said.

Groton pays pensions benefits to 183 town retirees, of whom 33 are former police officers represented by the union, according to information provided by Robert Zagami, director of human resources and risk management. An additional five retirees are non-union police officers, including Morton.

The town pays an average annual pension of $32,365 per retiree across all departments, Zagami's office reported.

Karen Morton was a councilor when her husband approached the council asking for his pension to be reviewed.  She recused herself and did not participate in the discussion. But two of her colleagues discussed whether they could give Matthew Morton alone an increase since he asked for it, which made it look like councilors were trying to take care of their own, said Conrad Heede, a current town councilor and chairman of the Groton Democratic Town Committee.

"Nobody did anything wrong. It was like a big misunderstanding kind of thing because the optics were bad," Heede said. A 2 percent cost of living adjustment was ultimately extended to Morton and four other non-union police department retirees.

As the municipal election approached, Democrats seized on the issue and put out a statement saying the exchange looked improper. Republicans fired back that Democrats didn't want to support retirees from the police department. The exchange became unnecessarily ugly, Heede said.

"During the campaign, the implication was that this had occurred as a result of some backroom deal orchestrated by me, which is patently absurd," Morton told the council.  "I had no involvement in the decision, but I am very proud of my husband's actions on behalf of his fellow officers."

She added her husband never should have had to ask for what was promised to begin with, she said.

Heede said he agrees with Morton's point that the town should review cost of living adjustments for retirees, even if they're not granted.

“If we don’t want to pay for (cost of living adjustments) then we shouldn’t hire people or we need to look at other ways to fund retirement,” he said.

The City of Groton approves cost of living adjustments for retirees annually, equal to the Social Security increase, Heede said.

Town Manager John Burt said he supports providing cost of living increases. In November, he requested studies showing how much this would cost, he said. Burt said he intends to look at all town retiree groups and would discuss it with the council as part of the budget for the coming fiscal year.

"Before deciding on a percentage, I want to make sure we're aware of the full financial ramifications, since the cost isn't a one-year cost," he wrote in an email.  "It will continue on as long as the retiree is in the system."

The cost would depend on the percentage of the increase given.

In July 2017, then-Councilor Morton asked for a referral that would require the town to conduct an annual review by a specified date to determine which retirees are eligible for increases and decide what percentage of increase, if any, to award. The topic has been an ongoing issue for years, but only now became public, she said.

d.straszheim@theday.com