Mayor Kenney says plan in works to stop DROP employees from being rehired

Philadelphia’s mayor says he’s not firing two employees hired by his administration even though the pair took payments from a early retirement program.   

Two former city employees, Charles Brennan and Michael Yanak have been hired by the Kenney administration after retiring and taking the Deferred Retirement Option Program payments.  Mayor Kenney, who opposes DROP says it was an oversight.

 

“The one individual had been gone for so long I didn’t think the DROP program was in place when he left so I never thought to  ask,” he said.  “The second individual was offered a job and had quit a job that he had before we found out that he had also taken part in DROP.  He was also gone for quite some time.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported the two DROP participants had been hired.

Kenney admits it was a mistake and is promising his administration won’t hire more DROP recipients.

“We are working on a policy now that will insure that doesn’t happen again. It’s a different situation than the loophole where a person retires one day and comes back the next,” he said, referring to past abuses of DROP where workers “retired” for one day, collected the payment, and then came back to the city.

As for ending the program, the mayor says there doesn’t appear to be an appetite of City Council to do away with it.