Wareham joins regional program for funding retiree benefits

Feb 25, 2015

Wareham has become the first town to join a new Plymouth County program for funding retirement benefits that could save the town millions of dollars, according to Plymouth County Treasurer Thomas O'Brien.

Selectmen unanimously voted to enter into the Plymouth County Other Post-Employee Benefit (OPEB) Trust, or PCOT, Tuesday night. The program is designed to enable municipalities to reduce their retiree healthcare obligations and bring collective investment opportunities to participating towns, according to a Plymouth County press release.

Other Post Employment Benefits are benefits, with the exception of pensions, that public employees receive when they retire. These include health, dental, vision and life insurance.

"I'm ecstatic we could do this," said Town Administrator Derek Sullivan. "It allows us to reach investments we wouldn't be able to do on our own. It will save the residents and taxpayers money . . . I'm very proud that we are the first to be in there."

O'Brien said Wareham's OPEB liability would immediately decrease because of the high discount rate offered by the program.

"We're talking not just tens of thousands of dollars, not just hundreds of thousands of dollars but in the millions of dollars by participating in a program like this," O'Brien said.

Sullivan said the town's current OPEB liability is $82 million.

O'Brien said California-based Public Agency Retirement Services will serve as consultants and the administrator of the trust for PCOT. According to O'Brien, Public Agency Retirement Services is one of the best companies in the country that provide this particular service, saving communities money on their Other Post-Employment liabilities.

He said another key component of the program is flexibility and that towns can put in as much or as little as they want into the plan in any given year.

Public entities within Plymouth, Barnstable, Bristol, and Norfolk counties have the opportunity to participate in PCOT, according to O'Brien.