City Councilwoman Marian Tasco will retire on Friday, collect a six-figure pension payment and then return to work after she is sworn-in on Monday to serve her seventh term.
Francis Bielli, executive director for the city’s Board of Pensions and Retirement, said he was recently notified that Tasco, who is enrolled in the controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan, will retire on Friday and collect $478,057.
Tasco did not respond to requests for comment.
Tasco was reelected despite her participation in DROP, which drew public ire after elected officials entered the program, ran for re-election and retired for a day to get hefty pension payments, only to return to office.
Retiring Councilman Frank DiCicco, who is also in the program, considered running for re-election, but after controversy erupted over DROP, he decided not to. Retiring Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, who is also enrolled in DROP made a similar decision. Councilman Frank Rizzo lost reelection due in-part to his participation in DROP. Retiring members Jack Kelly and Council president Anna Verna are also DROP participants.
Some City Hall insiders said DROP was Tasco’s biggest roadblock in her unsuccessful bid for Council president –the second most politically powerful job in the city. Several incoming members said they would not support a DROP participant for president. Councilman Darrell Clarke will be Council’s next president replacing Verna.
Mayor Nutter has tried in vain to eliminate the DROP program. In September, Council voted to override Nutter’s veto of a bill, sponsored by Tasco that would preserve the DROP program, while reducing its cost.
Nutter has vowed to work “tirelessly” to abolish the program.
Another elected official set to return after collecting his DROP payment is Register of Wills Ronald Donatucci, who retired Dec. 23 and will also return on Monday, Bielli said. He collected $366,797.
This is shocking. If you retire, you are retired. Can't the DROP payment be stopped on the theory that the retirement is completely fictional? There is no retirement if the person plans on returning to work the following work day. I simply do not understand this at all.— BarbaraM- It is shocking and disgraceful. Shame on her and shame on us for electing these brazen corrupt officials who take right in front of us in broad daylight. Marion Tasco? Anna Verna? Kelly? What good can they claim to have done for this city, when they are lining their pockets at a time when many of us are out of work with no retirement savings and with more and more cuts in city services? These are the people we keep electing. — yohahn
- City Hall is NOT the only place that this is happening. Take a look at The School District of Philadelphia. No NOT the PFT or other union employees, but the so called NON-REPS. These mostly work at the Queen's Palace aka- 440 North Broad. Yes, Queen Arleen was exiled with a treasure chest of riches including paid health care and piles of cash, but what goes on in the palace is still even more obscene. The NON-REPS have their own form of DROP. It's their private club. First of all, you have to steer your career there where you alone hold all of the secrets to your position. This is standard practice. It takes years to build the walls of complication, redundancy, and mystery around you but then it pays off the day that you select early retirement. You get a fat retirement paycheck and then you have left the unsophisticated district and with a wink and a nod you get rehired as an 'emergency' hire. It's an oft used loophole but it's by the book. Just like DROP. There is one guy in Masch's office that has been retired for over TEN YEARS but is still collecting two paychecks on a loophole as emergency personnel. Some emergency. This is bad enough during normal times, but now they are laying off un-retired breadwinners of the family. These arrogant and greedy A-Holes watch people around them get their lives ruined and they just keep collecting two paychecks. It's obscene.
— Clean-Up_Philly - Keep voting Democrat ! — hotelguy
- Remember Darlin' Arlen? - I'm changing my party so I can get RE-Elecchhted.... cut from the same cloth. — bad joe s
- If someone would organize a party to oppose the Dems in Philadelphia, maybe voters would have an alternative. The Reps in Philadelphia are content to have the spoils of the Parking Authority. They don't even bother to field decent candidates in municipal elections. — Charles B
Comment removed.- shocking. look at her constituency. they're all leeches on the city
— laphroaig - @BarbarM, its called business. If you are not smart enough
to make sure that a deal is in your best interest, then
it is your fault for not doing your homework, and not being
responsible for your self. Retirement usually means that
after a certain age, and a certain number of years of
"service", you get certain annuity, or "equivalent" lump sum
payment. That's it. It doesn't restrict you on what
to do with your life and time, and if you want to
work somewhere, well, if it is not in the contract,
dumb contract, and too bad.— OldMrP - OldMrP, it's not business. It's something else--corrupt politicians. When city politicians negotiate employee pay and benefits with the unions who contribute to their reelection campaigns, nobody is representing the taxpayers. — Falls Ed
- criminals— Zero
- "criminals"____Absolutely not. Ms. Tasco, and many others, are merely following the legal guidelines of the DROP Program. While it may be infuriating to most people, including me, the people benefiting from DROP are not "criminals". In fact, given the opportunity most of the people submitting negative posts regarding this story would do exactly what Ms. Tasco is doing - they would be fools not to. Until the program is either reformed, or (preferably) dropped, these actions will continue. — snad264
- Comment removed.
- Where there's a way there's a will...— He Visto Todo
- It's OK. She's a Democrat - she means well. She will be re-elected by the Philly robo-voters.— ObamaSolyndra
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.
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