CBS Chicago and BGA reports:
They retire as Chicago police officers and get rehired by the city, doubling up on two taxpayer subsidized paychecks, one for a civilian job and the other for a police pension.
The Better Government Association and CBS 2 Investigators found that some even get hired back in a day to jobs at the top of the police department, all at a time when the police pension fund is only about 30 percent funded.
For example, Commander Donald J. O’Neill retired on October 15, 2014 as the police department’s director of management and labor affairs with an annual salary of $154,932. The next day, O’Neill began collecting his pension, currently $117,241, and was appointed as the police department’s $150,396 a year civilian director of human resources. O’Neill’s current salary and pension total $267,637.
O’Neill could not be reached for comment.
Commander James Roussell was earning $154,932 when he retired in March 2014. The next day he began collecting his pension, currently $117,704, and was appointed Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy’s chief of staff, making $162,012 a year. Roussell’s salary and pension now total $279,716. That’s more than the $260,004 that Supt. McCarthy makes.
Roussell told BGA investigator Pat Rehkamp that when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 63 for police officers, he was not ready to quit working and was asked by the department to come back as chief of staff.
There's more:
“Up to 23 officers that are now collecting a police pension on top of a paycheck as a regular city employee,” said BGA Investigator Patrick Rehkamp. “That amounts to ‘double dipping,’ and at least in most cases the total income is substantially higher than their police salary ever was.”
The total combined cost of salaries and pensions comes to $3 million a year. It’s not illegal but…
“Double dipping is unfair to taxpayers,” said BGA director Andy Shaw. “You want your pension, take it. You want to stay on a government payroll? Do that. But not both at the same time.”
David Kugler, the attorney for the Retirement Board of the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund says currently, “When an officer retires from service there is no provision in the pension fund which provides any restriction on what the officer can do in his retirement. As long as he observes the laws he continues to get his pension.”
No wonder Moody's downgraded Chicago bonds to
junk.
