Councilwoman Joan Krajewski to Retire for 1 Day to Collect $300,000!

There's a lot of news going on right now in this city, namely the new murder rankings are in. I'll have to get to that later, because right now, I'm incredibly angry about this!

This is Joan L. Krajewski. She was recently re-elected to an eighth-term as Councilperson for the 6th District. For all her time in office, at age 73, she has decided to retire.

For one day.

At a cost of $297,466.

Yes, that's right; After all her time in office, she has decided to retire simply to cash in before she starts her 8th term in City Council! This is because of a Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP), which freezes their eventual retirement benefits — meaning they will receive less of an annual pension at retirement. One can only assume that she is doing that in order to save you, the tax payer, money.

Why I do I say that? Because, thus far, no reason at all has been given for this move. The only explanation given has been this:

Krajewski pointed out that she could easily leave office now with her $297,466 payment and begin drawing her $74,366 annual pension — which she can’t get until she leaves office for good — and the taxpayers would have to pay that plus a new councilperson’s salary.

Which we will have to do once she finally retires, anyway, so that's a rather moot point to make.

Let's consider this; According to a 2003 report, the DROP program costs the City of Philadelphia $7 million a year, although some say the program does pay for itself. At the same time, this still comes out of the pocket of you, the taxpayer.

The City of Philadelphia must enter into negotiations with City workers to discuss this very pension plan. Right now, the union wants more money for their pension funds. The question now is if not only should the city do this, but how can a raise now not be justified after this?

We have a Councilperson who has just shown just how blatant some crooks are in this city. Publicly announcing she is ready to rob the City Treasury for a day, telling us just how much loot she's going to get away with? And telling us we should be HAPPY about it?

When I said I didn't want criminals in City Hall, I wasn't kidding! We need to make sure this robbery never happens!

Feel free to contact her office by writing to her personally:

http://www.hallwatch.org/profiles/council/krajewski/faxbank/writeletter