Call him the million-dollar cop.

Old Westbury Police Chief Daniel E. Duggan retired last year after 40 years on the force with a salary and severance package totaling more than $1 million, according to village records.

Duggan, 64, received $1,061,937.61 as a result of hundreds of unused sick, personal and vacation days in addition to compensatory time and term leave, which grants village employees five days of pay for every year worked, according to records and village officials. When he retired, his annual salary was $285,286.64.

Duggan’s severance pay included 275 sick days, equaling $321,530; 201 vacation days totaling $235,009.20; 240 hours of comp time amounting to $35,076 and 58.625 personal days, which cost $68,543.35, Village Administrator Kenneth J. Callahan said. His term leave pay was $233,840.

“I spent 40 years in this police department; it was time I earned and you’re paid for your time,” Duggan said in a brief interview outside his Mount Sinai home. “What am I supposed to say, ‘I don’t want this?’ I didn’t negotiate the contract.”

Duggan also currently receives a gross monthly pension of $14,801.98

Old Westbury Mayor Fred J. Carillo said, “It’s a heck of a lot of money” but acknowledged the village was bound by the state retirement system, which allows accrued benefits to be paid out upon retirement.

“He was a good chief,” Carillo said. “I can’t quarrel with it. It’s the state government. The civil service rules. There’s nothing you can do about it. He’s entitled to it.”

Old Westbury is one of the dozens of villages and towns across Long Island that have their own police departments. These departments investigate many crimes sometimes with assists from county departments, which investigate all homicides.

Old Westbury, a village of about 4,600 residents that straddles the towns of Oyster Bay and North Hempstead, employed a police department of 25 officers, according to its payroll last year. That number has now increased to 27, the mayor said.

In all of 2013 — the most recent year reported — the Old Westbury police investigated one aggravated assault, six burglaries, 29 larcenies and four motor vehicle thefts, according to New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, which tracks crime statistics at all the state’s law enforcement agencies.

Another Old Westbury retiree, Lt. James T. Mayberry, who along with the chief retired on June 27, 2014, received a payout of $578,686.39, according to village records. Mayberry, 58, could not be reached for comment. Mayberry’s salary was $217,656.10 when he retired.

Mayberry’s package consisted of 275 sick days, totaling $227,326; 1,320 hours of term leave, totaling $136,395.60; 424 hours of vacation pay, equaling $43,827.42; 239.75 hours of comp time, totaling $24,773.37 and 10 personal days, totaling $8,266.40, according to Callahan.

Carillo said he realized Duggan’s retirement payout would be a “hefty sum” about five years ago and negotiated a five-year contract that would grant him a $30,000 retirement incentive and reduced his annual salary to $100,000 if he didn’t retire at the close of the contract.

But Carillo said the payouts didn’t put a strain on village finances, even though Duggan’s payout accounted for 13 percent of the $8,167,229.71 the village paid its 62 employees in 2014.

“If you want police protection, it costs you,” Carillo said.

The village’s “highly trained” police force is worth the money, Carillo said. Crime in the village is “pretty low because we have good protection,” Carillo said. “If there’s ever a robbery or a burglary, we jump on it. We try to show a large amount of force on any response, so that way it goes out to the miscreants that if you come into the village of Old Westbury, you’re going to to get arrested.”

Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based conservative think-tank, said “substantial reforms” are needed on both the state and local levels regarding retirement benefits.

“I certainly don’t find the number surprising,” Hoefer said, of the $1 million payout. “This is a symptom of a system that allows public employees to sort of accumulate massive payouts upon retirement. I don’t think the argument is about the employees — they’re simply taking advantage of the benefits. This sort of speaks to the culture of how public employers treat their employees. You’re seeing these massive benefit packages that start to accumulate when they’re hired and really become a burden when they retire.”

Nassau County paid more than a half-million dollars each in salary and termination pay to seven retiring police officers last year — five years after county officials instituted a severance cap to limit the payouts to two times an officers salary, which is described as base pay plus longevity, shift differential and holiday pay.

And last August, Westhampton Beach Police Chief Ray Dean retired with a $400,000 payout for hundreds of unused sick, vacation and personal days after working 15 years as chief of the seaside community.

 

You may also like

EDITORIAL: CAN WE AFFORD SIX -FIGURE PENSION AS THE NORM?

Six-figure pensions are becoming the norm among retirees from New York’s largest downstate suburban police departments, according to data posted at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More

Bill Requires Municipalities To Maintain Their Websites

Skoufis’ legislation references a 2014 Empire Center highlighted the poor quality of municipal websites many of which lacked basic information. The report found that less than 20% of local governments received a passing grade on their website’s availability of information and usability including two municipalities that did not have a website. Some of those websites have improved over the past five years, including Jamestown’s, which received an “F” rating in 2014. The updated city website includes all of the information Skoufis’ legislation would mandate. Read More

EDITORIAL: State schools continue spending more for less

As reported by the Empire Center last week, “The number of students enrolled in New York state public schools is the lowest recorded in 30 years.” Since 2000, enrollment in public schools has declined by more than 10 percent statewide with most of it upstate as enrollment in New York City schools has increased 1.3 percent in the last 10 years. Students are not leaving to go to private or parochial schools either because they, too, are showing declines, down about 8 percent in the last decade. Read More

Genesee Community College president tops pay list in Finger Lakes

ALBANY — Genesee Community College President Dr. James Sunser was the highest-paid municipal government worker in the Finger Lakes region, according to the latest edition of “What They Make,” the Empire Center’s annual report summarizing total local government pay. Read More

Delaware psychiatrist tops Southern Tier public salaries

A Delaware County employee was named the highest-paid in the Southern Tier, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. Read More

Cuomo’s claim on property taxes omits mandates

In 2015, the state capped the local Medicaid share, saving local governments more than $3 billion per year. "Even with the freeze, Medicaid remains one of the largest expenses faced by local governments in New York—and one they have little or no means to control," wrote Bill Hammond, director of health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy, which is fiscally conservative.  Read More

Yonkers: Top debt, taxes among NY cities, report says

Yonkers had the most debt and highest taxes among the five largest cities outside of New York City last year, while White Plains charged the most fines, a report released Wednesday said. The “Benchmarking New York” report from the Empire Center compared taxes, spending and debt for municipalities across New York based on data from the state Comptroller's Office. Read More

Government consolidation isn’t always the answer

"I think the narrative has gone askew as we talk about what to do about this," said Tim Hoefer, executive director of the government watchdog Empire Center for Public Policy. "We are one of the states with the highest property taxes in the nation, and the cost drivers are partially at the local level, but they're also driven by mandates from the states that aren't paid for." Read More