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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tasco to retire, but only for a day

Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco is retiring Friday, but only so she can collect a $478,057 pension check and return to work Monday, when she will be sworn in for her seventh term.

Tasco was one of six Council members to enroll in the city’s controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan, better known as DROP. She did not immediately return a request for comment.

Plan participants trade a lower lifetime pension for a large one-time lump sum payment, but they are supposed to retire when they get that check.

Several elected officials, however, exercised a right approved by two city solicitors to run for election, retire for a day, collect their DROP payments, and return to work.

Tasco was one of six Council members to do that. But DROP enrollment became such a political liability that participation in the plan played a role in the decisions of four other Council members - Frank DiCicco, Donna Reed Miller, Jack Kelly and President Anna Verna - not to run again. Councilman Frank Rizzo lost his reelection bid in part because he was enrolled in DROP.

Taco may have paid a price, too. She was widely expected to replace Verna as president, but as the DROP controversy grew, Tasco’s candidacy for the leadership spot faded. Instead, Councilman Darrell Clarke, who is not enrolled in DROP, will be the next president.

DROP allows participants to pick a retirement date four years in the future. That decision freezes their yearly pension payment and prompts the city to deposit an amount equal to their payment in an interest-bearing account. At some point before the end of the four years, the employee retires and collects the lump-sum check.

When DROP was introduced during the Rendell administration, it was thought that it would cost little or nothing.

But a study by the administration of Mayor Nutter said DROP had cost the city $258 million over 10 years. A later study paid for by Council put the pricetage at $100 million over 10 year.

Nutter proposed abolishing DROP, but Council instead chose to modify it to reduce its cost.

Contact staff writer Miriam Hill at 215-854-5520, hillmb@phillynews.com or @miriamhill on Twitter.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Posted by Miriam Hill @ 12:31 PM Permalink | 30 comments

Comments

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:43 AM, 12/30/2011

Hey, she, you know, "earned" it...

— jnsesq

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:48 AM, 12/30/2011

$100 million, $250 million small difference for a city that can't fund its school system or adequately police its streets. Clearly the council is populated by Chicago-style politicians.

— snappinsue

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:20 PM, 12/30/2011

Can someone please be cuffed and read their Meranda rights .. this city is THE WORST IN AMERICA
Keep electing these LEFT WING LUG NUTS you dopes.. It's actually funny.

— jaydg22222

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:43 PM, 12/30/2011

A Den of Theives. Citizens of Philly, you deserve everything you've got for electing these clowns for as many years as you have. You are truly a laughing stok of the world. You will always be a third rate city. A mini Bananna Republic.

— Phishface

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:45 PM, 12/30/2011

This practice has become quite popular lately, among middle and upper management in government jobs. They retire and come back to work, receive a salary and a few benefits while collecting their retirement benefits as well.

Apparently it's legal, so I'll leave the ethics of this practice for others to decide. What I have noticed, it creates a lot of morale problems in the workplace, of the "We can't move up until you retire, move out and stayed moved out!" variety.

— SFer

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:52 PM, 12/30/2011

...and you wonder how the political elites are born...this is how it's done.

— Superpower

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:55 PM, 12/30/2011

This is why I moved out of Philly. No longer did I accept my tax dollars going towards this type of thing. Once everybody moves out things will change because they won't have the $$$ anymore.

— steviekm3

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:37 PM, 12/30/2011

This is why even if you live or work IN Philadelphia, you are morally justified in paying city wage tax.

— jowillia1

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:38 PM, 12/30/2011

Sorry .... in NOT paying.

— jowillia1

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:40 PM, 12/30/2011

This is what happens with collective bargaining for public sector employees. And, with a town council that kicks-the-fical-can-down-the-road for someone else to solve and bear the burden of these agreements. If they retire, they cannot come back to government employment unless they forfeit their retirement during that time. But, that's what y'all deserve as you keep re-electing your masters.

— BeanerECMO

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:45 PM, 12/30/2011

The brothers and sisters are running the city!! We are in charge!!! Anyone care to comment how this arrangement has worked out for everyone? Yes, this comment will upset a bunch of people. but the truth hurts sometimes and it's true that people in charge don't care WHO they are screwing over, you me....even their own race. The entire city government is a joke.

— T. Paine

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:50 PM, 12/30/2011

It's a tough job, but someone's got to fleece taxpayers...

— Truth Detector

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:58 PM, 12/30/2011

And this is why America is dying. Public sector pigs, entitled to rip off the public, and made to suffer no long-term embarrassment. In fact, public sector friends will be amazed and impressed by their prowess. But they are pigs. Nothing more.

— Tom in RI

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:58 PM, 12/30/2011

Absolute, complete, unadulterated insanity. We live in New Jersey and my wife works in Phila. THIS is what we are paying for??? On the other hand, this is downright funny. If you can't laugh about it, then you'll cry.

— lgroniko