Philadelphia City Council Approves Changes to "DROP" Program

Philadelphia City Council this week approved legislation that would exclude elected officials from taking part in the city's Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP). Sponsored by Councilman Bill Green, chair of the labor and civil service committee, the measure could be voted on by next week. Not to give council too much credit however -- legislation passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in September, 2009, required Pennsylvania counties to amend their DROP programs to bar elected officials from participating, and counties were given until mid-March to comply.

Intended to help the city plan for the loss of experienced workers, DROP allows a city worker to set a retirement date four years in advance, whereupon payments to the pension plan cease and the benefit is frozen. Contributions are instead put into an interest-bearing account, which is paid out in a lump sum at retirement, and pension payments begin at pre-DROP amounts.

Controversy arose when then-City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz permitted then 75-year-old Councilwoman Joan Krajewski and then-78-year-old City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione to run for reelection in 2007, retire for 24 hours in January, 2008, collect their lump sum payment, and return to work the next day. This ruling opened the floodgates and elected officials subsequently rushed to join DROP. Six council members are currently enrolled and will not be affected by this new legislation.

While the Committee of Seventy, a political watchdog agency, has long argued that the DROP program was never intended for elected officials, in April, 2009, Philadelphia City Solicitor Shelly Smith claimed that elected officials were no different than any other city worker, and claimed that DROP did not distinguish between elected officials and city workers.

Zack Stalberg, President of the Committee of Seventy, said that, even though elected officials currently enrolled in DROP were "following the rules that currently exist," DROP could still be a 2011 campaign issue, since current elected officials in the program would still be permitted to "retire for a day." Stalberg said those currently enrolled should leave office once they get their payouts. "I think they have a moral obligation to leave if they agree to enter this particular pension program. The one day resignation has been deemed to be legal by the city solicitor but that doesn't make it right."

The six Council members currently enrolled in DROP are 78-year-old City Council President Anna Verna, Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco, 72, Minority Whip Frank Rizzo, 66, Frank DiCicco, 63, Jack Kelly, 71, and Donna Reed Miller, 63. None of them has ruled out running again. Several high level administrators have also been permitted to "retire for a day," one of them the Pension Board's interim executive director James Kidwell , when officials claimed they were finding it hard to replace him. Amusingly, Councilman Frank DiCicco has come up with an inventive way to get around the loophole. He says, if re-elected after collecting his DROP payment, he'll simply work for free. Nice, Frank.

Are Philadelphians incensed that the currently enrolled members may still "retire for a day?" You bet. My other problem is this: Why are so many people over the age of 70 still on our City Council and in our city government!? No wonder there are so many young people hanging on corners -- their great-grandparents still have all the jobs! This is why nothing gets done in this City, it's the same old guard running things. We need a shake up and these septuagenarian bastions of incestuous political machinery have allowed people like Vivian T. Miller, the former Clerk of Quarter Sessions, also over 75, to run our city offices and government into the ground and into massive debt! They've allowed DHS to outsource to agencies that stole our money and allowed children to die. They've allowed property taxes to go unpaid by slumlords, city workers and politicians, while raising the taxes of everyone else. Here's a hint as to what we might have in store for us: Councilman David Cohen died in 2005 at the age of 90, midway through his eighth Council term.

Retire, go home, volunteer somewhere if you want to keep busy, you old gargoyles. Give somebody else a chance who really wants to help the city, not just rape its coffers.

Philadelphia City Council Listing and Pictures; Sources: Council Approves Drop Changes; Committe of 70 on DROP; "Retire for a Day" is Legal; High-Level City Administrators at Center of DROP Controversy