Council’s DROP Study Released With No Surprises
It’s official. DROP is nothing to worry about! Nothing, Council says! Bolton Partners, City Council’s consultant on the matter, released their report on the city’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan and found exactly what they said they’d find: The entire cost is $100 million and “substantially less than the $258 million price tag put on the plan last...
Continue ReadingTomorrow’s Festivities: Knox and DROP
You’re likely to wake up tomorrow to Snowmare on Snow Street 3: New Snow. That’s too bad, but fear not: certain things are happening in the general vicinity of City Hall that’ll make you forget all about digging your car out with an ice scraper. Find them below. Tom Knox The Philly business guy who put door hangers on your knob proclaiming now-Mayor...
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Former Mayor Street Says We Don’t Get DROP, Council Candidate Helps
Former Mayor John Street went on Fox 29 this morning to, well, sort of defend DROP, maybe? In the span of a 12-minute clip, in which his brother’s mayoral run is barely mentioned, Street tried to make a point of saying the media simply doesn’t understand the DROP program, and only reports on it because it’s a good news story. He then says if DROP were run...
Continue ReadingDAILY GRINDER: Lies, Damned Lies and DROP Studies
According to a new study, DROP costs about half what Nutter’s Baltimore consultants said. Based on an initial knee-jerk reaction, we don’t really know what to think, either. Except we know Frank Rizzo, Jr. is probably happy. And maybe Frank DiCicco will scrape that silly legislation and keep his money, after all. [Philly.com] The Union League of Philadelphia...
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Chopping Block: Now Rizzo Wants To Return DROP Money
Frank “Spawn of Frank Rizzo” Rizzo may be a bit passive aggressive about it, but now he wants to return his DROP money, too. He follows a short list of City Council members up for re-election – most notably, Frank DiCicco – suddenly wanting nothing to do with DROP, the money they’re getting from it, or the general sense that they’ve been stealing...
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Vern Anastasio Responds To DiCicco DROP Bill
We caught up with First District candidate Vern Anastasio, who is quite ready for his rematch with Councilman Frank DiCicco this year. He’s got a few more obstacles in his way, but seems to be mad as ever about DiCicco’s participation in DROP — he’s, um, willing to compare the dude to Nixon, ouch! — as well as his recent bill that’d...
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First District Candidates Respond To DiCicco DROP Bill
It took a few hours but two of the five non-incumbent candidates for Councilman Frank DiCicco’s First District seat – Service Employees International Union official, Jeff Hornstein, and former executive director of Cease Fire PA, Joe Grace – responded (separately, of course) to Frank DiCicco’s attempt to get out of DROP via legislation. [Emphasis mine] Jeff...
Continue ReadingDROP Everything: Is Frank DiCicco This Scared?
Councilman Frank DiCicco will apparently do anything to get out of DROP due to its ramifications that could result in the non-re-election of Frank DiCicco for Philadelphia’s First District. The Inky is reporting that he circulated a bill yesterday that “would allow him and other elected officials to exit the controversial DROP retirement program.” DiCicco...
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Study Projects Philly Will Run Out Of Money For Pension Funds
If Mayor Nutter needs more evidence that the city’s DROP pension plan needs to be punted, he just got it in the form of a report released today by two economics professors. According to the study conducted by Joseph Rauh, an associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Robert Novy-Marx a business professor at University...
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Council in Session, Fills Calendar With “Awareness Days”
City Council is back! All 17 members gathered today for the first meeting since last spring in a wildly productive opening session. Mostly, Council members competed to see who could propose the most special recognition and awareness days. Or week, or months, whatever. This legislative body is non-discriminating when it comes to empty gestures, so they all passed...
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