Is simply allowing a certain number of sick days a year not doable?

Jersey City police union president criticizes 2009 payouts to four administrators before being told that not all of his facts are straight

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The president of the Jersey City police union yesterday lashed out at the city for allowing top officials to cash in some of their accrued sick time in 2009.

Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association president Jerry DeCicco called the payouts, usually reserved for retiring employees only, a "sweetheart deal" that Mayor Jerramiah Healy OK'd while planning reductions in public safety.

"The public wants their money to go toward protecting their safety and educating their children, and any fiscal mismanagement is clearly reprehensible," DeCicco said in a statement.

Last week, The Jersey Journal revealed that in 2009, Healy signed an executive order allowing four top officials who had reached retirement age to cash in up to 50 percent of their accrued sick time.

The four officials - then-Business Administrator Brian O'Reilly, City Clerk Robert Byrne, Health Director Harry Melendez and Tax Assessor Ed Toloza - received a total of $149,526, as an incentive to keep them from retiring, city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said last week.

DeCicco claimed in his release that police officers aren't permitted to accrue sick time. Completely inaccurate, Morrill said yesterday.

Morrill noted that police officers are afforded "unlimited sick time," and they are also permitted to sell back vacation and comp time throughout the year.

"The city pays roughly $1.5 million to police officers for compensatory time cash-ins, the sale of vacation time and hardship requests," she said.

If time off isn't bankable, the employees accruing it are simply more likely to take the time off before it expires. When sick days expire, an employee is more likely to call in for minor illness like "headache" or "allergies" than not. From the perspective of the public, having public employees at their posts, on the job is probably more important than encouraging them to use up their vacation and sick days; nothing is more annoying than showing up at a public office looking for information or trying to get a permit or accomplishing some city business than finding out that the necessary city employee is out sick.

If you look at the Calendar Year Budget, Jersey City taxpayers are on the hook for $81 million of bankable days. This is the reason, we should eliminate municipal government and just have county government.

The notion that it was vital to keep these folks on the payroll is laughable. Everyone is replaceable. Especially that slug Robert Byrne.

Is anyone else getting sick of the mouthpiece Jennifer Morrill? Does she ever deliver good news or something that doesn't insult one's intelligence?

so god damn stupid. If I don't use my sick/vacation days in a year they stick around for an extra few months then disappear. Not sure why public employees get paid for unused sick days.

Oh you came in today? Great here's your $50. Also, here's your $50 for coming in today.

Jersey City says four top administrators were allowed to cash in their unused sick days in 2009 because it feared they might retire to collect on benefits before state could cut them, as threatened at the time

Friday, May 20, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Two years ago, Jersey City quietly permitted four top officials to accept payments of up to half their accrued sick leave in what officials say was an attempt to keep the four administrators from retiring amid rumblings that state officials were about to curtail public benefits, The Jersey Journal has learned.

The payments, which are generally permitted only when employees retire, were approved in a June 3, 2009 executive order issued by Mayor Jerramiah Healy. The purpose of the order, according to city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill, was to "help retain senior administration officials who had not seen a salary increase for some time."

The four checks were issued in June and July 2009 to City Clerk Robert Byrne, who received $23,001.04 for his unused sick time; Health Director Harry Melendez, who received $35,947.39; former Business Administrator Brian O'Reilly, $44,967.04; and Tax Assessor Ed Toloza, $45,611.02.

O'Reilly retired Aug. 1, 2010.

The executive order will end up saving taxpayers money, Morrill said, adding: "We would inevitably pay a higher rate when these individuals retire."

Depending on how long they've worked for the city, some public officials who are able to receive payments for their accrued sick leave are able to receive 80 percent of the value when they retire, paid at their last rate of pay, according to Morrill.

The three employees still on the payroll who received the payouts will continue to accrue unused sick time.

Chuck Carroll, president of the Jersey City Public Employees Inc. Local 246, called the administration's OK of the four sick-time buyouts for nonretiring employees "sleazy."

"To get it early? I mean, no it's not fair, not when employees . are losing their jobs," said Carroll, whose union represents 525 white-collar city workers.

He added: "Why do these individuals who make pretty hefty salaries need any more?"

Melendez earned a $128,523 salary in 2010, Byrne's salary reached $146,424, Toloza earned $130,818 and O'Reilly's final salary before he retired was $150,441.

Gov. Chris Christie and Democrats in the state Legislature are working on a deal to eliminate payouts for unused sick leave.

Christie wants it eliminated entirely, saying at a Jersey City event last week that sick leave "should not have any cash value." The policy of buying out unused sick time is "a mistaken policy of the past," Christie said.