Boston Council Panel Reviews Firefighter Pension Petition, Cites Legal Barriers to 100 Percent Benefit

BOSTON — March 27, 2026 — Boston City Council panel reviews home rule petition to raise injured firefighter's pension to 100 percent. The Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Councillor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, held a virtual hearing Friday on Docket 0268, a special act petition filed by Councillors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy on behalf of retired Fire Lieutenant Leo J. Bracken, who fell more than 20 feet down a fire pole in 2019 after a long-documented roof leak flooded the firehouse on Blue Hill Avenue. The petition would raise Bracken's accidental disability pension from roughly 72 percent to 100 percent of his active salary, add outside-earnings allowances, full medical coverage, and a 75 percent survivor benefit. Legislative agent Michael O'Reilly of the Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems told the committee that the petition's "notwithstanding" language effectively removes Bracken from Chapter 32 entirely, a structure the Boston Retirement Board's Tim Smith had reviewed and accepted. Coletta Zapata flagged unresolved questions about taxability and the state legislature's resistance to 100 percent benefits outside a narrow 2024 "violent act injury framework" — a standard Bracken's preventable-accident case does not squarely meet. No vote was taken; Coletta Zapata said she would continue legal consultations before bringing a formal recommendation forward.