03-14-2005, 10:40 AM
Police paychecks even fatter
Friday, March 11, 2005
By SHANNON D. HARRINGTON and BENJAMIN LESSER
STAFF WRITERS @bergen.com
Numbers released last month by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for its top police overtime earners didn't tell the whole story.
New York State pension records for the officers showed they earned an average of 20 percent more in 2004 than what had been reported in Port Authority tallies.
The agency listed 10 officers who combined to make more than $2 million in base pay and overtime. However, the pension records show those officers, who are among more than 1,600 on the force, actually made an additional $403,000.
Toll payers will foot not only the salary bill, but will also be on the hook decades into the future - for escalated pensions that result from the higher compensation.
One officer who made about $226,000 in base and overtime pay actually took home nearly $287,000, according to pension records.
Port Authority officials said they did not intend to mislead anyone. Rather, they provided only what was requested by news reporters.
"[Reporters] were always concerned about the overtime number," authority spokesman Steve Coleman said. "It's my understanding that no one has asked for total compensation.
"I don't think we're trying to hide anything," Coleman said.
The extra pay came from a mishmash of perks and bookkeeping categories ranging from higher wages for officers who worked late shifts to retroactive pay increases. It also included two other categories that would be considered overtime pay on many payrolls.
According to a review of the pension records, police Sgt. John D. Rienzie made an extra $61,149 from these categories, more than a third of which came from a retroactive pay raise.
Officers signed a new contract in November 2004 that was retroactive to January 2003.
That extra cash, combined with overtime, resulted in Rienzie nearly tripling his $100,129 base.
At least two others more than tripled their reported base pay with overtime and extra pay.
One of those was Joseph Confreda, the biggest overtime earner on the force with more than $128,000 in overtime - an average of 82 hours of work each week.
That overtime, added to $36,000 in extra pay, allowed Confreda to take home more than $241,000.
Attempts this week to contact Confreda, Rienzie and other officers on the list were not successful.
Coleman said a lot of the extra pay came from retroactive salary increases.
Other things lumped into that category included bonuses for years of service, and holiday and vacation pay.
But the extra pay category also includes compensation that many bookkeepers would consider overtime.
When an officer is called in to work one of his or her scheduled days off - or to work on a day that had been scheduled for vacation - those payments are not included in the Port Authority's overtime or base salary totals.
Instead, they are lumped into the extra pay column, Coleman said.
One accountant interviewed Thursday with a long list of government clients said he didn't recall seeing that kind of bookkeeping before.
"Overtime is overtime," said the accountant, who asked not to be identified.
Overtime in recent years has been a big issue for the Port Authority, which is funded largely by Hudson River bridge and tunnel tolls and user fees at its four airports in New York and New Jersey.
In 2000, the Port Authority's 1,300 officers logged nearly 400,000 hours of overtime, costing the authority more than $20 million.
After the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade center in 2001, killing 37 Port Authority officers, overtime costs ballooned to $86 million in 2002 as officers were forced to work 72-hour weeks in order to maintain heightened security at bridges, tunnels, airports and the devastated trade center site.
Overtime numbers declined in following years as work schedules returned to normal for most officers.
But even last year, officers logged 653,370 overtime hours, costing the Port Authority more than $30 million.
Friday, March 11, 2005
By SHANNON D. HARRINGTON and BENJAMIN LESSER
STAFF WRITERS @bergen.com
Numbers released last month by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for its top police overtime earners didn't tell the whole story.
New York State pension records for the officers showed they earned an average of 20 percent more in 2004 than what had been reported in Port Authority tallies.
The agency listed 10 officers who combined to make more than $2 million in base pay and overtime. However, the pension records show those officers, who are among more than 1,600 on the force, actually made an additional $403,000.
Toll payers will foot not only the salary bill, but will also be on the hook decades into the future - for escalated pensions that result from the higher compensation.
One officer who made about $226,000 in base and overtime pay actually took home nearly $287,000, according to pension records.
Port Authority officials said they did not intend to mislead anyone. Rather, they provided only what was requested by news reporters.
"[Reporters] were always concerned about the overtime number," authority spokesman Steve Coleman said. "It's my understanding that no one has asked for total compensation.
"I don't think we're trying to hide anything," Coleman said.
The extra pay came from a mishmash of perks and bookkeeping categories ranging from higher wages for officers who worked late shifts to retroactive pay increases. It also included two other categories that would be considered overtime pay on many payrolls.
According to a review of the pension records, police Sgt. John D. Rienzie made an extra $61,149 from these categories, more than a third of which came from a retroactive pay raise.
Officers signed a new contract in November 2004 that was retroactive to January 2003.
That extra cash, combined with overtime, resulted in Rienzie nearly tripling his $100,129 base.
At least two others more than tripled their reported base pay with overtime and extra pay.
One of those was Joseph Confreda, the biggest overtime earner on the force with more than $128,000 in overtime - an average of 82 hours of work each week.
That overtime, added to $36,000 in extra pay, allowed Confreda to take home more than $241,000.
Attempts this week to contact Confreda, Rienzie and other officers on the list were not successful.
Coleman said a lot of the extra pay came from retroactive salary increases.
Other things lumped into that category included bonuses for years of service, and holiday and vacation pay.
But the extra pay category also includes compensation that many bookkeepers would consider overtime.
When an officer is called in to work one of his or her scheduled days off - or to work on a day that had been scheduled for vacation - those payments are not included in the Port Authority's overtime or base salary totals.
Instead, they are lumped into the extra pay column, Coleman said.
One accountant interviewed Thursday with a long list of government clients said he didn't recall seeing that kind of bookkeeping before.
"Overtime is overtime," said the accountant, who asked not to be identified.
Overtime in recent years has been a big issue for the Port Authority, which is funded largely by Hudson River bridge and tunnel tolls and user fees at its four airports in New York and New Jersey.
In 2000, the Port Authority's 1,300 officers logged nearly 400,000 hours of overtime, costing the authority more than $20 million.
After the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade center in 2001, killing 37 Port Authority officers, overtime costs ballooned to $86 million in 2002 as officers were forced to work 72-hour weeks in order to maintain heightened security at bridges, tunnels, airports and the devastated trade center site.
Overtime numbers declined in following years as work schedules returned to normal for most officers.
But even last year, officers logged 653,370 overtime hours, costing the Port Authority more than $30 million.