Well it wasn't Mayor Duci as first reported it was Mayor Johnson. No wonder DVR has disappeared into witness protection. The City DEMS started this outrageous practice.
And quote of the month from Mayor in waiting Gary McCarthy; "These things should be subject to public scrutiny". WTF? No they should be kept quiet so Councilmen can falsely claim they were in the dark on everything. This guy is right up there with VP Biden as a DEM quote machine.
Retired fire chief makes pension push Schenectady's Farstad wants overtime figured into retirement benefit By Paul Nelson Published 09:17 p.m., Friday, July 6, 2012
SCHENECTADY — Retired Fire Chief Robert Farstad wants the state comptroller's office to include his overtime pay in calculating his state pension, his attorney said Friday.
"It strictly comes down to the calculation of what the final average salary should be and the calculation of his retirement benefit," said Michael Cuevas, who is representing Farstad in an upcoming hearing with the office that administers the state retirement system for public employees.
"It's a single issue of what is a fair calculation of this retiree's benefits," Cuevas said.
In an email, Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the comptroller's office, said the hearing is on "whether a payment for overtime made to the retiree upon the termination of employment is includable in the calculation of final average salary."
He said because "the calculation of overtime is in dispute, the final retirement calculation has not been made." Once that happens, the amount of Farstad's pension will be made public, Johnson added.
On Friday, Farstad was adamant that the matter isn't newsworthy.
"My business is my business," he said in a telephone interview. "I'm no longer a public figure and shouldn't be put through the ringer."
The retired chief was referring to the public backlash in the months before he retired in April 2011 that ultimately led to reforms in the city that put a stop to secret deals between public officials and top-level administrators that critics called pension padding.....................>>>>....................>>>>................Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/loca.....13.php#ixzz1zvfkMNDo
"My business is my business," he said in a telephone interview. "I'm no longer a public figure and shouldn't be put through the ringer."
He is as clueless as the board cheerleader (for downtown)
Farstad IS a public figure. He is getting paid with the tax dollars, therefore EVERYTHING IS PUBLIC as far as his pension is concerned!
It is quite obvious that he sees how much it costs to live IN the city and he wants that extra factored in in order that his tax bill will be "covered." I will guess that since a neighbor put their house on the market in July of 2010 and after TWO YEARS it STILL has not yet sold (because NO ONE wants to buy a house IN the city), that Farstad probably tried to get his assessment reduced and the board responded to him, "insufficient data," so now he realizes how much of a tax increase he's going to have because of the dem socialists wild spending, and remember, his pension is probably 70% of his salary (or more), so with a reduced income in his household combined with HUGE tax INCREASES combined with a DRASTIC REDUCTION in the value of his house, he figures that just because he was a "chief" that he can swindle the taxpayers into paying for his property taxes.
His salary IS and FOREVER WILL BE the public business and knowledge of the people that pay him---the financially struggling homeowners of the city whose typical HOUSEHOLD income (ALL income from ALL SOURCES combined) is roughly $37,000.
.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
When Gary McCarthy succeeded Stratton as mayor, he negotiated a new deal for the assistant police chiefs — citing the need to end unwritten agreements that pumped up retirement payouts.
Well it appears that this is a cut and dry issue.....yes? No written agreement....no ot included in pension.......yes?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
SCHENECTADY Retired chief again eyes pension bump Farstad cites scuttled secret deal with Stratton BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Retired Fire Chief Robert Farstad is still trying to get a bigger pension. He is appealing his pension estimate, asking the state to grant him the 60 percent increase he would have gotten through a secret deal with former Mayor Brian U. Stratton. The deal would have transferred Farstad’s accumulated sick and vacation time into overtime, but was never approved by the City Council. After it came to light, the deal was scuttled, Stratton chose not to run for re-election and a referendum last year changed the City Charter to specify that the mayor does not have the authority to single-handedly make fi nancial contracts with employees. Only the City Council, which approves all city expenses, can make such decisions. Current Mayor Gary McCarthy was dismayed to hear that Farstad is still looking to pad his pension. “I thought the matter was over,” McCarthy said. “That was done without the council’s approval, and I believe it was solely the prerogative of the council. I believe the mayor exceeded his authority.” But Farstad’s attorney, Michael Cuevas, says he can prove that Farstad should be given credit for overtime. “There are documents. You have to piece things together,” he said. The issue began in 2009, when Stratton agreed to transfer to overtime $117,000 in Farstad’s accumulated sick and vacation time. Overtime pay increases a pension, while sick and vacation time do not. Farstad allegedly agreed to accept three annual payouts of overtime, equaling the cost of his sick and vacation time, while waiving his sick and vacation payout. The payments were staggered because the pension system only counts slight increases in pay each year when it calculates the final average salary. If Farstad had accepted the entire amount in one year, only a small percentage of it would have counted toward his fi nal salary. Spreading it across three years would have increased his pension by 60 percent. The Daily Gazette questioned Farstad’s first two payments because the chief had never before received overtime and other department heads are not eligible for overtime. Stratton eventually explained that he agreed to the deal to make up for a city decision made years earlier. Members of the city fi refighters’ union — but not management — agreed to givebacks in their contract to get into a better pension plan, with the givebacks equaling the cost the city had to pay to get into the better plan. Farstad had left the city at the time but was hired back as chief shortly thereafter. The cost to put him into the better plan was so high that city offi cials refused to do it. Farstad later alleged that some mayors promised to save the money to eventually put him in the plan. Other fi re department leaders said Farstad would not give up sick and vacation time to pay for his entrance into the plan. Union members of the fi re department had given up raises and other pay for their admittance to the plan. City Council members said Farstad often brought up the issue, but the cost of entering that plan at the end of his career was $160,000, which they said was far too high. Stratton said he thought the overtime deal was a fair way to resolve the issue, though he never asked the council to vote on the expense. Once the City Council learned of the overtime deal, the council officially told the pension system that the overtime was not approved and should not count toward Farstad’s pension. Farstad’s overtime requests were for work that had been part of his regular duties in previous years. In 2010, he asked for more than 12 weeks’ worth of overtime for everything from attending minor fires to talking about fire safety with neighborhood groups. His attorney said that since Farstad had permission to fi le for overtime, he must get credit for it with the pension system. “What he [Stratton] said was, Bob could work overtime,” Cuevas said. “There’s an overtime form that fire department members fill out. He filled it out on a regular basis.” Cuevas also argued that Farstad’s situation was not unique. Since at least 1990, assistant chiefs and chiefs of both the police and fi re departments have been given six weeks of overtime upon retirement, even if they could not provide documentation that they had actually worked overtime. Farstad’s far more generous deal with Stratton would have given him roughly 34 weeks of overtime pay. But the precedent is there, Cuevas said. “The important thing is there is a policy in place. It’s been applied to others,” he said. Former Mayor Karen B. Johnson offered the 30-day overtime deal in a memo to police as she tried to encourage them to accept promotions to upper management, where they would no longer get overtime. When the Farstad deal came to light, then-Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden unearthed that memo but said he didn’t think it could stand up in court because it appeared to violate federal law. “A salaried [management] employee is expected to do their work and complete their jobs for their salary,” he said. “Technically, they would not be eligible for overtime under federal law.” .......................>>>>.......................>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00101&AppName=1
Well it wasn't Mayor Duci as first reported it was Mayor Johnson. No wonder DVR has disappeared into witness protection. The City DEMS started this outrageous practice. 
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