PAWTUCKET – Mayor Donald R. Grebien last week announced creation of a panel that will focus on the city’s underfunded pension plans and attendant health-benefits compensation for retired city workers.

According to the latest audit completed last year, Pawtucket has an unfunded pension liability of $140 million, at a funding ratio of 30 percent, and an Other Post-Employment Benefits liability of $378 million, for retired firefighters and police officers. (Other city workers are in the state-run Municipal Employee Retirement System, or MERS).

The panel will be chaired by Ernest Almonte, former state auditor general and CEO for the private firm Almonte Group LLC.

Other notable members include Richard Licht, director of the R.I. Department of Administration, Garry Sasse of the Bryant University Institute for Public Leadership, and Pawtucket City Council President David Moran. Other members are drawn from active and retired police and firefighters, private industry and municipal finance. •