Right, overtime isn't in the budget. What about the free healthcare and the other 'verbal' contracts from the Mayor. They are supposed to be written into the budget, somewhere. You can't have someone working for the City via verbal contract, yet not specifically state where that job is included in the budget. Isn't that defrauding the taxpayers as to where their money is going in the City?

Quoted from rachel72

Right, overtime isn't in the budget. What about the free healthcare and the other 'verbal' contracts from the Mayor. They are supposed to be written into the budget, somewhere. You can't have someone working for the City via verbal contract, yet not specifically state where that job is included in the budget. Isn't that defrauding the taxpayers as to where their money is going in the City?

Actually there is lump sum in the budget for overtime pay.   Every penny that is spent has to be in the
budget someplace ... even for the "free health insurance".  

All of those people who got padded pensions or other benefits had some kind of agreement or contract
with the city  --- PLUS there is the "unwritten understanding" .. which every mayor of BOTH parties has
gone along with.      One would be hard pressed to prove that fraud was actually committed.   Not saying that
"pension padding" is a good thing -- but it is not technically illegal.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

   One would be hard pressed to prove that fraud was actually committed.   Not saying that
"pension padding" is a good thing -- but it is not technically illegal.

Yet, you are not hard pressed to charge conspiracy to commit fraud by the Republicans without a shred of proof, to explain away Eunice's little lapse of judgment.

What-a stooge!  Do you even believe the BS you write?

Collecting $50K off of the hard work of the Rotterdam taxpayer may not be technically illegal - but it is most certainly unethical and low class.  Her reputation will be permanently damaged. IMO

I hope it's worth the money.

Quoted from CICERO

Yet, you are not hard pressed to charge conspiracy to commit fraud by the Republicans without a shred of proof, to explain away Eunice's little lapse of judgment.

What-a stooge!  Do you even believe the BS you write?

Collecting $50K off of the hard work of the Rotterdam taxpayer may not be technically illegal - but it is most certainly unethical and low class.  Her reputation will be permanently damaged. IMO

I hope it's worth the money.

There is a "shred of proof"  -- actually more than a shred -- so just be patient.   People will get what they
deserve soon enough.

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Council to give payout to fi re chief
Farstad will get about $73,800 upon retirement
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Fire Chief Robert Farstad is getting his payday after all.
    The City Council will vote Monday to give him a cash payout of about $73,800 when he retires, likely in 60 days. A majority of the council said Wednesday that they would approve the payout.
    They said they had no choice because it was listed as a benefi t in an old contract that dates back to Farstad’s time as assistant fi re chief.
    The contract, from 1994, allowed him to receive a lump sum upon retirement for his accumulated sick and vacation time. It was signed by Mayor Frank Duci, they said.
    The benefit was commonly offered to all city workers.
    Farstad left the city after working as assistant chief but came back a year later and was hired as chief, without a contract.
    The old contract was unearthed after the mayor was caught in a secret deal that would have allowed Farstad to substantially increase his pension.
    Mayor Brian U. Stratton allowed Farstad to begin converting $117,000 in accumulated leave into overtime pay. A payout for accumulated leave would not have increased Farstad’s pension. However, by moving that pay into overtime over the course of three years, Farstad would have nearly doubled his pension. He stood to collect tens of thousands of dollars a year in additional pay.
    The deal was revealed when The Daily Gazette filed a Freedom of Information request for Farstad’s overtime records. ........................>>>>....................>>>>......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01100&AppName=1

Let's call this what it is: Because Mayor Duci was smart enough to write a contract, Stratton won't get charges brought against him for illegal pension padding because Farstad won't sue the City. This is hush money - pure and simple.

Of course Stratton knew there was no contract in force, and he knows that half the other City workers don't have writtten contracts either! This way he can promise overtime, lifetime medical benefits, etc, etc and no one (especially the taxpayers) are the wiser.

So, the Council is spending $73,800 because they don't want Farstad to sue. They are spending $73,800 because if Farstad sues, the Mayor is caught in illegal pension padding and his job as boat boy go down the tubes.

Stratton can't get re-elected, he is on the fringe of being held accountable for illegal deals and someone, somewhere is doing him a favor before the pot starts boiling over.  

We need to see every word of that original contract.

This contract was to get this pay "at retirement."   And that's assuming he continues working til retirement.  But he resigned, therefore I would say the contract and it's provisions are done.  

Or did his contract say that he gets's the payment sometime in the future when he RETIRES FROM SOMEWHERE?    

WAs the contract worded so that it said something that if he leaves employment with the city and goes somewhere else, then the provisions of that contract are restored even without a new contract if he returns to city employment?

If he came back to work for the city WITHOUT A CONTRACT, when HOW can the provisions of a non-existent contract be in effect?

Also, the timing of this big theft from the financially struggling taxpayers, is VERY VERY FISHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Having worked for a West Coast municipality some years ago one common pension padding scenario was this.   A few years or so before retirement (favored/connected) employees would upgrade their positions by taking courses related to their job description knowing full well it's actual uses would be limited at best.   This due to not having that much more time left until the retirement bell was rung.   Was not done to further ones ability to improve worker productivity for years and years beyond.   Not only that but said courses were paid for by the municipality.  And one wonders how the taxes/pensions get so high.

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Benefits mess traced to ex-mayor’s memo
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    The city’s contradictory tangle of benefits for various managers has been traced back to a memo from then-Mayor Karen B. Johnson, Corp. Counsel L. John Van Norden said.
    Until then, managers apparently received a uniform benefi ts package, which was detailed in the city code.
    But while the code never changed, public safety managers now get far better benefits — including 30 free days of overtime to boost their pension at the end of their career, whether they work the overtime or not.
    Other managers now get some of the additional benefi ts offered in the CSEA contract, but not all of them, and not consistently.
    The issue was uncovered after The Daily Gazette reported that Mayor Brian U. Stratton allowed Fire Chief Robert Farstad to secretly convert his accumulated leave into overtime, which would have significantly increased his pension. When city officials researched the issue, they discovered that only three city managers have written contracts and many others think they have been promised a variety of benefi ts.
    The City Council is now trying to sort through the mess and return to a consistent, documented benefi ts package.
    “That would make perfect sense,” Councilwoman Denise Brucker said. “Uniform would be an excellent thing to have. I am totally on board for a universal management contract.”
    That would also eliminate any backroom deals and secrecy involving managers’ benefi ts packages, Council President Gary Mc-Carthy said.
    “These things should be subject to public scrutiny,” he said.
    The issue isn’t just benefits. Raises have also been erratic for managers.
    “I think we’ve gotten away from some common sense,” McCarthy said. “If I like [a manager], you get a big pay raise. Then the next year, there’s no money and no one gets a pay raise, and how come yours is much higher than mine? You want to treat people fairly, and some people are being treated differently from others right now, which creates internal problems.”
    Van Norden said his research has discovered that the issue began when Johnson offered an “incentive” to police offi cers.
    Johnson offered 30 days of overtime and promised that chiefs would get the same benefits that the police union gets, including any changes in future contracts, he said. .......................>>>>........................>>>>....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01100&AppName=1

Stop the spin McCarthy. This fossil dig is bringing up petrified dinosaur crap.

Pure and simple, the Mayor and the City Council have hired City workers and City Admin WITHOUT so much as a contract. They've promised lifetime medical benefits, pension padding incentives and other questionable items to City workers.

Now, the Council is scrambling to find ANYTHING in writing to end the backroom deals THEY'VE ALLOWED for years! The City workers will either sue or get paid off not to sue like Farstad did (he had a nice $78K check for hush money). Hard to end a legacy you've perpetuated.

SH!T like that ruins the future of a community.....I can only imagine Rotterdams....

Just think if the econ. meltdown never happened, how much longer this would of continued.   Now all of a sudden it's become trendy to follow the very ethical standards that were there all the time, but were laxed in being carried out.   Partly resp. for the mess we find ourselves in now.   It may be a bit too late for salvation of credibility, to try and repair the damage they themselves have brought upon this city.   When times were good no one was looking or noticed.   One benefit of the meltdown, the exposure of such practices.   The system is on it's heels now.   If real reform/change does not result from these inequities they never will.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey DV!!!!!!!!!!!!    See, it's proven!!!!!    It's YOUR SOCIALIST DEMS that were doing this stealing of the taxpayers to give out BIG money ILLEGALLY to political cronies!!!!!!!!!!

Back then and STILL today !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOOOOOO, when are YOU going to buy a house in the city??????????????    You never will because you don't want to pay the high taxes.  Then some people don't want to pay taxes at all, they know when they have a good thing going living off the taxpayers