The DROP parade continues....

Council members Jack Kelly and Donna Reed Miller have joined five of their colleagues in the city’s deferred retirement option plan, a controversial pension perk that critics say wasn’t meant for elected officials.

Kelly, 70, and Miller, 61, will begin accruing their pensions over the next four years while also being paid their City Council salary of $110,000.

They can collect those four years of payments in a lump-sum at the end of four years or when they leave office. Councilwoman Joan Krajewski, who joined DROP four years ago collected her lump-sum without leaving office by retiring for one day in January and then beginning another four-year term in office.

The total on Council in DROP is now seven. Other Council members in the program are Council President Anna C. Verna, Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco, Frank DiCicco and Frank Rizzo. It’s not clear whether all will retire or seek reelection in 2011.

Critics say DROP was intended to keep valuable, veteran employees working, and not as a plum for elected officials (Mayor John F. Street, District Attorney Lynne Abraham, Sheriff John Green and City Commissioner Margaret Tartaglione also joined DROP). But legislation by Councilman Bill Green to bar public officials — his senior colleagues would be grandfathered — has gone nowhere. It appears that his opposition is approaching the majority of nine that would make sure it remains there.