NORWELL — September 16, 2026 — The Plymouth County Retirement Board has set 9.75% annual increases in its contribution schedule, above the 9% Norwell built into its five-year budget plan, and moved the pension funding deadline from 2031 to 2032, Town Administrator Chad Lovett told the Select Board on September 16. Board members want retirement board officials to come explain it.
The Full Story
Town Administrator Chad Lovett read aloud a Sept. 10 email to the board, written after a review of the retirement board’s minutes, a conversation with the town’s finance director and a call with the retirement board’s executive director. It read in part:
“It’s quite a change from the five-year plan presented previously, and I believe it will create credibility issues with anyone who has been following along.”
— Town Administrator Chad Lovett’s Sept. 10 email (1:55:30)
According to Executive Director Lauren Durham, the higher schedule reflects rising salaries and rates of pay across member communities, and the retirement board looks at two-year forecasts. Its most recent posted actuarial valuation, dated Jan. 1, 2024, put Norwell’s liability at $27 million. Lovett has not seen an updated figure or an estimate of what the new schedule will cost the town.
The extra year first looked like relief, Lovett said. “No, no, it’s 9.75% per year, increases of 9.75% a year.”
Lovett said the shift is not a reflection on the town staff who assembled the five-year plan. “That was the info that we had.” The town learned of the vote from a listserv for town managers, not from the county, and when he raised that, the county’s answer was that the meeting had been publicly posted. The retirement board does not record or stream its meetings.
Board member John McGrath said “I almost want to demand it” when Lovett proposed inviting the retirement board in, and questioned how it could present a multi-year funding schedule while forecasting only two years out. “You can’t say those two things in the same sentence,” McGrath said. He noted that an OPEB liability begins in 2032, so the remaining pension payments would now sit on top of it.
Vice Chair Ren Layne called a roughly 10% annual increase “substantial for our budget” and said the town needs actual numbers as soon as possible. “This is not a good look,” she said.
Chair Brian Greenberg said the board should “encourage them to come into a meeting” and asked that it happen “as soon as possible.” Members pointed to the Oct. 14 meeting, ahead of the Oct. 15 deadline for budget responses. Lovett said the request had already been raised with the new county administrator.
Select Board member Andrew Reardon suggested a call to the county treasurer, saying the treasurer promotes the county retirement system. “I’m blown away by such a request that they’re coming forward with,” Reardon said, offering to call the treasurer and the new county administrator personally.
The board took action on a different regional cost. It approved a motion authorizing town counsel to draft a letter protesting the building permit fee Hanover has sought from South Shore Vo-Tec for its new high school, asking that the fee be waived as it would be for any other municipal building, and authorizing the chair to sign it.
Dustin Reardon, Norwell’s representative to the South Shore Regional School District, who chairs the district’s school committee, said Hanover’s fee of $15 per $1,000 of projected cost comes to roughly $3.2 million, against a $500,000 line item the district set aside for permits. The district has paid more than $301,000 in permit fees so far, has retained counsel and will pursue legal action if Hanover holds to that amount, he said. Lovett said Hanover’s Town Manager reported the town received the request on the 2nd and has not yet responded.
