Pension trustee takes stand in defamation suit

A high-profile defamation case continued in Saint John Wednesday with a former long-time city financial officer on the stand.

The city's pension board is suing former city councillor John Ferguson for allegedly defamatory comments he made in 2005 about its handling of the pension fund, which had a $47-million deficit at the time.

The board is arguing Ferguson's criticisms damaged its reputation and continues to do so.

The boards lawyer, Barry Morrison, called Andrew Beckett, the citys former finance commissioner and former deputy city manager, to testify.

Morrison said Beckett, who is one of the pension board members involved in the suit, will have the second longest testimony after Ferguson himself.

Much of the afternoon was spent going over Becketts job descriptions and credentials.

On Tuesday, Fergusons lawyer named Beckett as one of the people responsible for the pension plans deficit.

Rod Gillis claims Beckett was among themembers who voted for expensive changesto the plan in the mid- to late-90s, which they stood to benefit from the most.

The changes, which included increasing the maximum pension cap to $45,000, up from $40,000 and then indexing it, did not benefit the average pensioner, but did benefit the top-earners who enacted the changes, argued Gillis.

And the changes were made without consulting an actuary to understand how they would impact the pension fund, he told the Court of Queens Bench.

Argument over articles

Lawyers for the two sides spent the morning arguing over the introduction of newspaper articles and documents as evidence.

The boards lawyer introduced 38 Telegraph-Journal articles about Fergusons allegations about the board.

Fergusons lawyer objected to six of them being submitted, but Justice William Grant decided to allow all of them into evidence.

Gillis then introduced several other articles, including a recent editorial cartoon that questioned what kind of reputation the board has to protect when its overseeing a pension plan with a deficit that has now ballooned to $190 million.

The lawsuit, whichdates back about five years,is unfolding as the city tries to cut spending to deal with the pension fund deficit.

The judge and jury trial resumes Thursday at the Provincial Building on Charlotte Street.

Beckett is expected to be on the stand most of the day.

The trial is scheduled to last six weeks.

In addition to Beckett, the plaintiffs include:

• police representative Andrew Belyea
• inside worker representative Bill Buckley
• the late Kevin Estabrooks, a city retiree
• former outside worker representative David Gould
• former mayor Norm McFarlane
• city solicitor John Nugent
• firefighter representative Fred Slipp
• former city councillor and retired fire chief Glen Tait
• city councillor Chris Titus
• former city manager Terry Totten
• deputy city manager Patrick Woods
• The city's commissioner of finance Greg Yeomans.