Martin Wencek

I have been blessed to be an employee for the State of Rhode Island at the Department of Environmental Management. I feel I have served the citizens of this state effectively and honestly. Although I was lured three times to leave state service; one such offer would have resulted in starting out at double my salary at the time, I choose to stay working as a public servant. This was the correct decision for me and I feel for the state. I have been in a position to have a positive impact, to make a great difference, and to support, both environmentally and economically, the state of Rhode Island.

But the RI Retirement Security Act of 2011 was a law that squarely targeted me as a state employee and did not leave me with the future retirement I had accounted for due mostly to the virtual elimination of cost of living adjustments. This loss to state employees is clearly evident these past few of years. I would hope that the decision to take the budget shortfalls of that time out on the state's most valuable resource, it's work force, can be revisited, and have state employee pensions restored to make right what was unjustly dealt to me and my fellow workers in 2011. Thank you for the opportunity to furnish this working group with my comments on this potential reform, hopefully leading to restoration of the contract prior to 2011 that included state employee pensions.

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