DROP now in City Council's hands
Philadelphia City Hall and political coverage from the Philadelphia Inquirer City Hall bureau.
DROP now in City Council's hands
Miriam Hill
City Council took the first step toward killing Philadelphia's DROP retirement program by introducing a bill on Mayor Nutter's behalf to end the perk. The legislation may go nowhere because Council members have not reached any concensus about whether to eliminate the Deferred Retirement Option Program, which lets city employees retire with a large lump sum payment and their pensions at a lower amount.
Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco introduced the bill.
The effort to eliminate DROP also is expected to run into legal challenges from the city's unions, who say laws protecting pensions apply to this benefit.
See the documents proposing the ordinance.
In a related development, Charles McPherson, the former Chief Financial Officer for City Council who became a controversial symbol of problems in the city's DROP retirement program, has won a new contract to provide financial consulting services to the city.
McPherson collected his DROP payment and then came back as an adviser, spurring criticism because DROP enrollees are supposed to retire.
Click here for Philly.com's politics page.
These people have no clue or conscience. McPherson retires, gets his $460K in DROP money, and then gets a "consulting contract" to boot! I'm telling ya, nobody would believe this if it happened in a movie.
Vote out ALL incumbents in November, every damn one of 'em!— The Monk
"The effort to eliminate DROP also is expected to run into legal challenges from the city's unions, who say laws protecting pensions apply to this benefit." The unions won't stop until there is literally nothing left to take. Unbelievable.
Those Council members that accept these payments should be forced to permanently retire from the City, in any capacity!!!!!!— Marchmadness
NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. COUNCIL IS MORALLY, ETHICALLY AND MENTALLY BANKRUPT.
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- Are there ANY Council seats up for grabs this election year? If so, maybe it would be best for you Lambs, Sheep, Lemmings, Etc. (Voters, in other words)to actually wake-up, grow a set, and vote for the OTHER Guy!! You know, the one running AGAINST the "Incumbent". And before you start throwing that "but they aren't experienced" BS....guess what? At one time, the "Incumbent" wasn't "experienced" either! But they are now. They are experienced at Bilking the System and of not giving a DAMN about you, a citizen of this City. If you don't vote, or if you vote for the "Incumbent", then you have NO ROOM to complain about the fiasco that is the City Government. Because YOU are JUST as much to blame as they are. Garbage IN, Garbage OUT.— KG071
- .— The Monk
- To: KG
Very well said! I lived in NYC over 50 yrs. Relocated to this area after 9eleven. Even when NYC politics and government were at its worst-it was never like what I see here in Phila. This city and the city gov particularly the city council is a toilet that stinks badly. These bums need to ve voted out. People who complain the loudest frequently dont vote or make civic awareness and involvement a priority. Many folks in Phila can harly read or write let alone value civics. Those among us who fail to vote and fail in their civic duties are even more culpable than these lazy self involved politicians in my opinion— charles steiner - Talk about pigs at the trough. Soooooweeeeeeeeeeee!— Ida Jury
- Can someone please explain how ELECTED folks are eligible for city employee benefits? How they even ARE city employees? Making them city workers insures that citizens' concerns will not be the first concern on issues.
And do they still get cars & drivers?— Ms Chips - Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Keep listening to the Liberal Media and this is what you get, Democrats, and higher taxes.— CrashTestCorzine
- Call me crazy but maybe I am missing something here. To me it seems that the real story is the underfunding of the city pension system. For all of the talk of the lump sum of money that a retiree gets, nobody mentions the fact that it is the RETIREE'S money. The retiree's pension contributions are going into an interest bearing account instead of the pension fund. The city's problem is that with so many signing up for the DROP, the pension fund misses those contributions. I'm no accountant, but is this fact the elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge?— Trident252
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