Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

Cronin Pained

Ralph Cipriano's article ["Street To Unions: DROP Dead," July 24, 2003] is a most puzzling one. With the two-color front-page headline, I expected to read a story focusing on the upcoming negotiations between the city and its employees. Instead I found a story describing an innovative program that was instituted by the Rendell administration and supported by city employees and their unions.

In reading further, Mr. Cipriano describes how the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) was conceived as a program that would allow the city to retain its most valuable employees while reducing the long-term pension costs to the city. Further, the legislation clearly describes the program as a "test" and also explicitly states the pension board must "automatically terminate" the program if the program has a "material increase" on the pension costs to the city. Presently there is no data showing that the program has a "material increase" on the pension cost.

Nowhere in the article do we find any city official, let alone the mayor, telling city employees to "drop dead." Instead we find numerous examples of city workers with real skills and dedication working for a period of time after they could retire to provide the citizens of Philadelphia with outstanding service. That these men and women are going to receive a financial reward for staying on the job, in a way that does no harm to the overall city pension fund, should not be portrayed as being unfair or immoral.

Also, your list of the "top DROP outs" seems to support the story's contention that the initial target group for the DROP program was police and firefighters. This is not accurate. The DROP program was developed for all city employees, including white- and blue-collar workers. Of the 13 individuals named, seven were senior police officers, including Commissioner Johnson and one was the fire commissioner, while the others were all senior management personnel. None of these individuals is a member of District Council 47 -- which represents the white-collar employees.

Finally, your article appears to be nothing more than a rather ordinary story about a test program designed with the best intentions to provide a win-win for city workers, city administration and the people of Philadelphia. You have wrapped this story in a headline that is deceptive and detrimental to the relationships between city employees and the administration.

Thomas Paine Cronin
President, AFSCME District Council 47

DROP is a great program -- something akin to a forced savings program. The city took this simple system, mixed the DROP monies in with regular pension monies, guaranteed a return and set in motion a disaster when the money is due in a down market.

Revamp DROP, don't get rid of it. Fix it right this time, Philadelphia.

Tom Roche
Via E-mail

Correction

In last week's neighborhood knowledge capsules [Rental Health, CP Staff, July 31, 2003], Sue Sierra was mistakenly identified as the executive director of the New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC). Sierra works with the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations; Sandy Salzman is the executive director of the NKCDC. Historical information attributed to Sierra was provided by Salzman.