Philadelphia sheriff's top aides piling up vacation time

NOTE: THIS STORY HAS BEEN CORRECTED.

Barbara Deeley, the top deputy to city Sheriff John D. Green, rents a vacation home on the Jersey Shore, but she says it's been years since she took even a single vacation day to enjoy it.

"I can't remember the last time," Deeley told the Daily News yesterday. Apart from city holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, she said, she has worked five days a week, 52 weeks a year, for at least the past five years.

Deeley is among seven of Green's top aides whose employment records credit them with 70 days of unused vacation - enough to take off three solid months with full pay, the maximum permitted under city personnel rules.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz disclosed the heavy vacation balances this week and speculated that one reason might be the sheriff's lackadaisical record-keeping.

Butkovitz reported, and Green subsequently confirmed, that the sheriff doesn't maintain records on sick leave and vacation days taken by his 17 noncivil-service aides.

But Green told reporters that the no-record policy was intentional, because his top aides aren't allowed to take real vacations.

"They're working 24 hours, seven days a week," he said. "There are no vacation days for exempt people."

Deeley is paid $94,360 a year as chief deputy sheriff and is in line to become acting sheriff when Green retires.

Other employees carrying 70-day vacation packages include Green's brother Vincent, who holds a $66,950-a-year job as the sheriff's "director of criminal operations and crisis management," and Constance Little, a former Democratic ward leader who is paid $110,000 a year to be Green's executive assistant. She joined the sheriff's staff two years ago after holding a similar job for former Mayor John Street.

Little referred a Daily News reporter to Deeley and then hung up, without describing her vacation practices.

Vincent Green did not return a call.

"Vince Green has never taken a vacation, never," said Deeley.

Under city personnel rules, noncivil-service employees typically earn two weeks' vacation each year for their first nine years on the city payroll, increasing to three weeks a year after nine years, and four weeks' vacation after 15 years.

Each year, an employee can convert up to five days' unused vacation into five days' pay, but not as cash, only to help cover payroll deductions for health insurance, dental and optical benefits, life-insurance premiums or other benefits.

Up to 70 days of unused vacation can be carried over from one year to the next, ultimately converted into pay when the employee leaves the city payroll.

Butkovitz said he was putting a hold on any future vacation and sick-pay accruals by the sheriff's exempt employees until the office starts keeping detailed records, preferably time sheets requiring employees to sign in and sign out.

Green said at a news conference Wednesday that he intended to begin some sort of record-keeping, but gave no details.

Butkovitz's deputy, Harvey Rice, said the controller's office had been advised by the city Law Department that there would be no way to block payment for unused vacation days already credited to the sheriff's personnel.