Most on Council back bill to end DROP

A resigned City Council majority yesterday endorsed a bill that would prevent future elected officials from cashing in on the city's controversial deferred retirement option plan.

Councilman Bill Green introduced a similar bill in his first month in office in January 2008, and spent much of the next year repairing relations with senior Council members who were already in DROP.

Yesterday, Green managed to find 11 cosponsors for his bill, because it does little more than formalize a decree by the legislature in September requiring the city to cut politicians out of the program. It also does not apply to anyone currently in elected office, but only to future officials.

"I think no matter what we do, it's going to be done. They dictated in the state that we had to," said City Council President Anna C. Verna, one of six Council members who combined are eligible to collect a total of $2.2 million in DROP benefits by 2012 and return to office if reelected.

The other Council members currently in DROP are Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco, Minority Whip Frank Rizzo, Frank DiCicco, Jack Kelly, and Donna Reed Miller. None of those sitting members has ruled out seeking reelection.

Councilwoman Joan Krajewski collected a DROP payment of $274,587 in 2008, retired for a day as required according to the city solicitor, and returned to work when she was reelected.

The Rendell administration instituted DROP in 1999 as a way to keep veteran employees by allowing them to collect up to four years of pension payments in exchange for a freezing of their pension and a commitment to retire when the four years is up.

Krajewski and City Commissioner Margaret Tartaglione were the first to exploit a loophole that allowed them to run for reelection after enrolling in DROP, retiring for one day, and then returning for another term of office.

Krajewski did not cosponsor the bill and has said on previous bills that to do so would be hypocritical.

Critics including Green, Mayor Nutter, and the Committee of Seventy have said DROP was not intended to provide elected officials with a financial incentive to stay on the job.

Together, 13 elected officials have collected or will take home $4.6 million through DROP by 2012, including former Mayor John F. Street and former District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham.

Green said his bill "puts this divisive issue behind City Council once and for all."

The bill still needs a hearing and a vote in Council.

Committee of Seventy President Zack Stalberg concurred.

"Although it shouldn't have taken the General Assembly to get elected officials out of DROP, what's important is that the controversy will finally be resolved," Stalberg said.

Also yesterday, Council voted unanimously for a ballot question asking voters to change the makeup of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Councilman Darrell L. Clarke's bill seeks a change in the Home Rule Charter to reduce the board to five members from six. The measure would reduce the required quorum from four members to three, and make the Commissioner of Licenses and Inspections an alternate in an effort to ensure that the board can maintain a quorum.

Clarke and others were miffed by the repeated postponing of hearings last year because not enough members were present.

Also, as expected, DiCicco introduced his bill that would extend the city's 10-year tax abatement to 15 years in "depressed" areas as defined by Council.