City Council Approves Early Retirement Incentive

While the City Council approved an early retirement incentive that officials project could save the city millions of dollars, an official of the local Civil Service Employees Association expects few members will bite on the offer.

About 52 of the CSEA’s 250 members are eligible for the incentive, and if these full-time and exempt employees opt to retire within 90 days of Feb. 21, when the council approved the resolution, they would receive 50 percent of their unused sick time instead of the 30 percent that they agreed to under the existing collective bargaining agreement.

“The net savings annually in year one, if 25 individuals would take it, would be $175,000 per year,” said City Manager Jack Schnirman, citing one of various retirement scenarios the city’s comptroller, Jeffrey Nogid, has worked out.

“The city does stand to have some savings,” Schnirman added, noting that the numbers reach more than $2 million if all the eligible workers take the offer. “There’s of course no way to project accurately how many individuals will be interested in taking the incentive at this time.”

John Mooney, president of the CSEA in Long Beach, said that under the incentive, the positions of any employee that takes it would remain open until the city's troubled finances are corrected. He called the incentive “helpful,” but believes few union workers will opt in, pointing to the retirement agreements for the city's police and fire departments, as well as Nassau County’s retirement program.

“The police and fire retire with 50 percent of their sick time,” Mooney told Patch on Wednesday. “CSEA currently in their collective bargaining agreement only retires at 30 percent. So they’re giving you the additional 20 percent. What the county did is they agreed to pay $1,000 per year per employee, but they’re not going to refill the positions. So, it’s a little different. But I don’t think [the city’s] proposal is going to get a big influx of people.”

CSEA and city officials expect to meet this week or next to work on the terms and conditions of the incentive and determine how many employees will participate, and incorporate the numbers into the draft of the 2012-13 budget.