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Politics

Hamptons' Police Chief, 53, Retires on $142,000/year Pension and $400,000 Sick-Day Bonus

Nick Gillespie | 8.19.2014 9:03 AM

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OK, so the Hamptons in Long Island are the playground of the rich and loaded, but check this out: The 53-year-old retiring police chief of Westhampton is pulling a $142,000 pension, plus a one-time payout of over $400,000 for unused sick days, personal days, and vacation.

From The New York Post:

Ray Dean, police chief of the 2.9-square-mile village of Westhampton Beach, is retiring with a bag of cash.

He is getting $403,714 for 15 years' worth — or 531 days — of unused sick, vacation and personal time. The payment amounts to 4 percent of the village's entire $9.7?million budget….

In addition, Dean, who is only 53, will collect an estimated pension of $142,000 a year.

Dean was already a millionaire. He bought a house in Quogue for $1.3 million in 2005, owns a 32-foot boat, and his pay last year came to $226,236 — more than NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton makes.

And make no mistake: Westhampton Beach is not Fort Apache, the Bronx.

Murder is unheard of, the last rape was reported in 2010, and the department tallied only 46 serious crimes in 2013, including 37 larcenies and three stolen cars.

One shocking incident involved reported vandalism: An oceanfront resident claimed someone spray-painted her back porch white.

In that last case, it turned out that seagulls had painted the porch white with their droppings, a twist worth of an Encyclopedia Brown mystery, but not such a massive payout.

Read the whole story.

Hat tip: Like a Libertarian's Twitter feed.

Most places aren't as flush with cash as the Hamptons, of course, but a similarly idiotic dynamic is at work virtually everywhere in public-sector America. At the federal, state, and local levels, public-sector workers are better compensated than their private-sector counterparts. That's true when we're comparing apples-to-apples, not just broad averages that lump in very different types of workers with differing levels of experience.

A 2010 study by the Buckeye Institute found that Ohio state workers make about 34 percent more in total compensation (salary, health benefits, retirement packages) than analogous private-sector counterparts.

Federal workers, according to a study by USA Today, earn about $20,000 more in salary and $30,000 in benefits than private sector workers.

For more on this theme: Go here and here.

As Steven Greenhut pointed out here last December, the bell has yet to toll for excessive public-sector compensation and until it does, governments at all levels will always be strapped for cash.

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NEXT: Eric Holder Heads to Ferguson to Fix Everything, Ice-Bucket Challenge Rules the Internet, Teachers Unions vs. Police Unions in NYC: A.M. Links

Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

PoliticsPolicyEconomicsPensionsGovernment Spending
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  1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Murder is unheard of, the last rape was reported in 2010, and the department tallied only 46 serious crimes in 2013, including 37 larcenies and three stolen cars.

    THEN APPARENTLY HE'S WORTH EVERY PENNY. Uh, including now that he's off the job.

    1. straffinrun   11 years ago

      Imagine how safe you would feel with a retired cop living next to you.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        I currently have no visible neighbors. I've never been safer.

    2. Seattle Vacation Rentals   11 years ago

      Some places especially small towns its the good ol boy game.

  2. Restoras   11 years ago

    Hard to fault the guy for taking advantage of the stupidity of the local government, and the residents dumb enough to vote for them.

    1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

      This x1000. People are incentive-response machines. If the government handed out $100,000 cheques for standing on one leg (or child murder), you'd see a massive increase in people who stand on one leg (or murder children).

      The chief is just responding to the incentives in place. It's the incentives that are wrong, not the people responding to them.

    2. Libertarian   11 years ago

      "...residents dumb enough to vote for them."

      And there's the rub. If the guy lives to age 73, that's another $2.8M he will get (assuming his pension doesn't include survivor's benefits or cost of living increases).

      The fact that we have millionaire public "servants" is proof that the boobosie just aren't paying attention.

  3. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

    When he's not bashing our courageous public servants who never take a sick day, I bet Gillespie spends his time defending overpaid CEOs. They're the same, except one works for the public good and the other for greee-ee-eed!

    Federal workers, according to a study by USA Today, earn about $20,000 more in salary and $30,000 in benefits than private sector workers.

    Well, shit. Time to fold up our small businesses and head to the federal trough. See you folks there.

    1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

      When he's not bashing our courageous public servants who never take a sick day

      Lol! You honestly believe that these people are superhumans who never get sick? Oh, they take sick days alright. They just lie about it.

      They're the same, except one works for the public good and the other for greee-ee-eed!

      You mean one is paid with money obtained through coercion and the other through voluntary transactions.

      1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

        But private property is inherently coercive!!one!

        1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

          Oh yeah. Not giving is taking and not taking is giving. I forgot. My bad.

  4. userve32   11 years ago

    Must be nice, thats all I can say. Wow.

    http://www.Anon-Surf.tk

    1. Jordan   11 years ago

      Anon-bot 2.0: Now more coherent than Shriek!

      1. straffinrun   11 years ago

        Ha!

      2. F. Stupidity, Jr.   11 years ago

        Always more coherent than Shriek.

  5. Mike M.   11 years ago

    Keep your ugly goldbrickin' ass out of my beachfront community Lebowski!

  6. Rhywun   11 years ago

    15 years' worth ? or 531 days ? of unused sick, vacation and personal time

    In the real world, he would lose at least 14 years of that.

    1. DJF   11 years ago

      Even the US military only allows you to sell back 60 leave days no matter how long you have been in the military. And you only get to sell back at the basic pay rate, no other pay is counted.

    2. CE   11 years ago

      In the real world it's called "use it or lose it" vacation. Our tops out at 6 weeks (1.5 years worth).

    3. retiredfire   11 years ago

      No, it wouldn't have gone unused, and when he used it, there would have had to be a replacement, at, probably, time-and-a-half.
      If your private sector job can get by without you, that's just dandy, but public safety requires a certain number of individuals there, each, and every, day -day in and day out.
      They can pay for him to take his days, now, or they can pay, later.

  7. AlmightyJB   11 years ago

    They have the money so whatever. I'm assuming it cost some serious dough to live in that community. If this were Detroit I still wouldn't care but it would certainly be more outragous. Maybe the story about the cowardly piece of shit pigs that burned the baby has used up my rage for the day.

    1. Jordan   11 years ago

      Well, just remember that those cops will draw a gold-plated pension and benefits when they retire too.

      1. Libertarian   11 years ago

        You like to poke bears with a stick, too, don't you?

      2. CE   11 years ago

        What's the logic behind allowing retirement at 53? His job doesn't sound too physically taxing. Seems like he could work til 67 or so before soaking the local taxpayers.

  8. Jerryskids   11 years ago

    As Steven Greenhut pointed out here last December, the bell has yet to toll for excessive public-sector compensation and until it does, governments at all levels will always be strapped for cash.

    But public-sector workers are humble public servants who sacrifice the advantages of private-sector employment, like higher pay and better fringe benefits and more job security, for the greater good so shouldn't they be rewarded for that sacrifice by higher pay and better fringe benefits and more job security?

    Just as Hillary defended her $8 million book deal by pointing out that she could have made a lot of money in the private sector but gave that up to work in the public sector - she deserves to take advantage of the opportunity to make a lot of money because she gave up the opportunity to make a lot of money. And some people found that argument not only comprehensible but persuasive. What the hell sacrifice is she talking about making? She's rich as all get out from her public service and she still insists on being admired and lauded for her selflessness in addition to the cash?

    1. retiredfire   11 years ago

      Private companies used to offer such benefits, that's how they came to the public sector.
      When private companies realized it was too expensive, they rolled these bennies back but government didn't, they got the $hit sued out of them if they did, (private companies responded to the lawsuits by filing bankruptcy but governments couldn't) so they kept the goodies in place.
      Governments are starting to have to file BK's, too, so don't despair, public employees will be brought down to your level - isn't that what you want?
      Here's a clue - it isn't the cost of these benefits that are bringing down government finances, but you don't really care, do you?

  9. The Last American Hero   11 years ago

    I'm not so sure it's fair to include pension benefits in the public sector benefits calculation. After all, for any of those workers that are a decade out from retirement, the chances they will collect the pension are slim.

  10. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

    Hillary defended her $8 million book deal

    That's insane. Nonfiction is such a terrible way to make money--lots of NYT bestsellers don't move beyond the tens of thousands range--and Hillary is such a lead balloon in the Obama era that the conspirator in me says that these contracts are nothing but payoffs from the publisher to the putative next president.

    That and who's pathetic enough to spend her time reading Hillary Fucking Clinton, a woman whose whole incompetent career in the public sphere is due to her husband? Are there really not any better populist feminist icons out there?

    1. tarran   11 years ago

      I work with a bunch of people who have 'Ready for Hillary' stickers.

      They are very nice people who literally have no idea of the evil they support. These are the same people who were very sad when Bloomberg's soda tax was overturned, because someone has to do something to improve people's health and don't judges understand how terrible diabetes is?

      1. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

        It's as if they've never been forced to do something against their will, but for their "own good". Either that or "she's a lady and I want a lady president" is the depth of our political discourse these days.

    2. Mike M.   11 years ago

      I'm think most of these modern political books are basically just a creative way to skirt the campaign finance laws.

      Some rich supporter or shell corporation buys up a few million copies, most of which will sit unread in some storeroom, and Hillary and her publisher rake in the cash.

      1. Libertarian   11 years ago

        "just a creative way to skirt the campaign finance laws."

        Not to mention the 6 figure speaking fees!

  11. EDG reppin' LBC   11 years ago

    Are you jealous, Nick? You sound like someone who would fit in well with some OWS losers.

    Look, the City and the Chief agreed to this pay structure. The taxpayers may be apathetic or in fact may like the pay structure. Either way, complaining about the pay of someone who legitimately earned it is childish.

  12. Citizen Nothing   11 years ago

    Just like the Federal Government and Obama agree on most of what he does. Who would be so childish (or racist) as too complain?

    1. Citizen Nothing   11 years ago

      "to"

  13. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    A 2010 study by the Buckeye Institute found that Ohio state workers make about 34 percent more in total compensation (salary, health benefits, retirement packages) than analogous private-sector counterparts.

    I wonder how they compare on productivity*.

    Since most of what the government workers do shouldn't be done at all, this is an especially difficult calculation.

  14. creech   11 years ago

    Yo, the guy's a freaking three star general and is responsible for a 3 sq. mile bit of terrain. Same rank as U.S. Grant running the whole damn Union Army in 1864. So he must be an very important guy and well-worth every cent the taxpayers are forced to give him.

    1. CE   11 years ago

      He's lost a lot fewer men than Grant did.

  15. Freedom Frog   11 years ago

    My father, who was a Sheriffs Lt in NJ, retired at 47 in '94 making like $72k I think it was. Not sure what his yearly retirement pay was. However, I do know that there was a rule about cashing in sick time. You could cash in 1 year of sick time but the rest was lost. He used up about 4 months of sick time in the 5 months leading up to his retirement then cashed in a years worth.

  16. Jerms   11 years ago

    NYC has eliminated the 3/4 retirement pay for new hires, but there are plenty of cops and firemen retiring with 100k+ pentions every day.

  17. James Ard   11 years ago

    Wow, he has accumulated more saved days than my eighth grade orchestra conductor in West County. I thought Mr. Meisch held the all time record at 417 days.

  18. Bubba Jones   11 years ago

    This is why I am not allowed to carry over vacation days at the end of the year.

  19. retiredfire   11 years ago

    OK, here's a clue - the unused sick-time, personal-day, vacation payout actually SAVES money.
    Had the chief, over his career, which is probably the time frame over which he accumulated these days, taken all of these, he would have had to be replaced by someone else and, since public safety departments are, usually understaffed, that person would have earned overtime, probably time-and-a-half.
    Such lump-sum payouts, over the long run, are an incentive for individuals to not use such granted leave and incur the added cost of having to hire a replacement.
    I can assure you, the politicians that run every government entity don't want to pay its employees more than they have to, it takes away from the money they spend buying votes.

    1. Freedom Frog   11 years ago

      and, since public safety departments are, usually understaffed

      LOL!

      1. retiredfire   11 years ago

        Check your local ones.
        It is a safe bet that the number of employees, especially the non-bureaucratic ones, is less than the authorized level.

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