2 pro-DROP union leaders got big DROP bucks

TWO MUNICIPAL union presidents fighting to keep the Deferred Retirement Option Plan alive have drawn six-figure DROP payments in recent years.

Cathy Scott, president of District Council 47 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, received a $216,992 DROP payment in 2007. That same year AFSCME District Council 33 President Pete Matthews got $163,415.

Scott and Matthews - who both said that they have played by the rules, with member approval - are campaigning to save DROP, which Mayor Nutter says the city can't afford.

"It was a benefit," said Matthews. "It was a benefit that we fought for."

But Committee of Seventy President Zack Stalberg questioned whether union leaders getting DROP payouts fits with the program's original intent of better managing the city workforce and planning for retirements.

"It clearly does not get to the goals of succession or any other managerial goals that were associated with the program," he said. "It's a nice favor for them, I suppose. But it doesn't achieve any advantage for the city or the taxpayers."

The presidents of the city police and fire unions have not entered DROP, according to city records.

Introduced in 1999, DROP allows city workers to set a retirement date up to four years in advance. At that point, their pension benefit is frozen and they start accruing pension payments in an interest-bearing account. Workers receive those payments in a lump sum when they retire, in addition to their city pension.

The program has drawn public ire because city elected officials have entered and exploited a loophole that allows them to run for reelection, resign for a day to collect the benefit and then return.

Following a study from Boston College that says that DROP costs the city $22 million a year, Nutter sent legislation to Council to eliminate it. Council President Anna Verna sought further review of the study and has not scheduled hearings.

Scott and Matthews said that their participation in DROP was not the same as that of elected officials. They work full time for their unions, but paid into the pension fund until they entered DROP. Before they received DROP payouts, they were considered on leave from city employment. They are now retired from the city, but work for the unions.

Scott said that there was a benefit to her entering DROP - that the city no longer had to keep a spot for her in case she came back.

"They technically have to keep a position," she said. "If it frees up, you can hire someone."

Scott criticized news coverage of DROP, saying that the program provides a benefit to retirees who don't receive cost-of-living increases in their pension payments. She said that union members were not taking DROP and returning to city jobs, and she questioned the numbers in the Boston College report.

"I think that a lot of very good information is going to come out at the Council hearings," Scott said.

Matthews started working for the city in 1968 in the Water Department and went full time to the union in 1983, according to city data. Scott started with the city in 1971 in prisons and has worked on and off for the union since 1982.