There are two stories that point to reasons why:
Philly Councilwoman to Retire and Collect $478,000 Pension, Then Start Back To Work On Monday
Marion B. Tasco, who has been described as being “politically savvy,” will retire from her sixth term as councilwoman, collect $478,057, and then be sworn in on Monday to serve her seventh term, Catherine Lucy and Chris Brennan of the Philadelphia Daily News.
How does she get away with this?
Tasco, along with many of her fellow Council members, is enrolled in Philadelphia’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP). DROP allows city workers to collect salary and build up pension money during the last four years of their employment, writes Aaron Kase of Philadelphia Weekly.
Naturally, when DROP was originally introduced, it was touted as being “revenue neutral.” It’s been anything but that. SInce its introduction, Philadelphia’s DROP program has cost the city $258 million in extra pension costs over a decade, according to a 2010 Boston College study.
And:
Public employee union defends Denver cop who was fired for driving drunk at 143 mph
On June 17, 2010, Denver police officer Derrick Curtis Saunders was arrested for speeding and driving under the influence. Before he was pulled over, he was driving at 143 mph in a 55-mph zone. That’s 88 miles an hour more than the speed limit. His blood-alcohol level was 0.089 percent, slightly higher than the 0.08 legal limit.
Appropriately, the Denver Police Department dismissed him. (A judge also sentenced him to five days in jail, fined him $300 and ordered him to perform 100 hours of community service.) Now, Saunders would like his job back — and the Denver Police Protection Association stands ready to help him.
Saunders — with the help of the union — filed an appeal to the Denver Civil Service Commission to request his job back. The Denver Post reports:
Saunders’ appeal to the Denver Civil Service Commission asserts that Martinez’s findings and penalties are “unfounded and/or unsupported by the facts” and violate principles of fundamental fairness.
The penalty is “disproportionate to the offenses alleged and/or is excessive so as to be punitive rather than corrective in nature,” according to the appeal, filed by the Denver Police Protective Association’s lawyers.
Nick Rogers, the union’s president, didn’t return a call for comment.
My brother works for the State of California. He has earned a fair pension, I think. But we keep hearing stories about gaming the system - spiking annual income with overtime to get a huge pension; health care benefits far in excess of the private sector, etc.
And it is bankrupting our cities and states, and soon the Nation.
