Verna, Tasco defend their DROPs

CITY COUNCIL Majority Leader Marian Tasco would like the media to DROP the subject of the controversial Deferred Retirement Option Program.

Tasco, in a speech yesterday at the end of Council's weekly session, complained about a front-page story in the Daily News on what she derisively called the "infamous DROP program."

Tasco is one of six Council members enrolled in the program who will collect six-figure pension payouts at the end of their terms. Together, it adds up to $2.1 million.

The Committee of Seventy yesterday called on the Nutter administration to reverse an opinion from former Mayor John Street's city solicitor that elected officials can run for re-election, retire for one day, collect the pension payment and return to work.

Nutter has submitted legislation to exclude future elected officials from the program, while giving a pass to officials already enrolled.

Tasco, who had refused Wednesday to comment for the story she was complaining about yesterday, said that her colleagues were being portrayed as "taking suitcases of money out of the city" while the five-year financial plan has a $1.4 billion deficit.

She will collect a one-time $467,566 payment from DROP, on top of her annual pension.

"It seems we are being maligned because we are accepting the money that we have contributed in the DROP program for four years," Tasco railed. "None of that money comes from the general fund. The DROP money can't pay for recreation centers. The DROP fund can't keep libraries open."

Five of the six Council members in DROP - Tasco, Anna Verna, Frank DiCicco, Donna Reed Miller and Jack Kelly - were coy this week when the Daily News asked if they would use the DROP loophole to run for another term and collect their payment.

The sixth, Councilman Frank Rizzo, said that he planned to collect his payment and run again.

That's what Councilwoman Joan Krajewski did in 2007, winning an eighth term, retiring for one day and collecting $288,136.

Verna, the Council president, backed Tasco's complaints and asked why her colleagues should be shut out of a program available to other city employees.

"I think I'm entitled to it," said Verna, who will collect $571,679 from DROP.

As for the loophole, Verna said that voters can close that themselves.

"If her constituents were so angry about it, they would have not voted her into office again," Verna said of Krajewski.

The Committee of Seventy, in a letter to City Solicitor Shelley Smith, asked her to revise the legal opinion submitted by former solicitor Romulo Diaz in June 2006 that said that it was legal for Council members to do as Krajewski did.

But Nutter didn't seem to favor overturning Diaz's opinion.

"That's a legal opinion," Nutter said. "That's an analysis of the law. It's not like somebody's opinion just walking down the street."

Nutter said that Smith would review the matter.

"I don't tell the solicitor what opinion to have," Nutter added.

Zack Stalberg, who heads the Committee of Seventy, a political-watchdog group, was glad to hear that Smith would review the issue.

The loophole, he said, "is really at the heart of this controversy," and opinions vary from one mayor's staff to the next.

"We're not talking about the U.S. Supreme Court here," Stalberg said.

"We're talking about the Law Department's opinion. That does shift from administration to administration." *