Quoted Text

Pension checks flowing to felons
Ex-Schenectady chief's case is latest example of pay in spite of crimes

By DAVID FILKINS, Staff writer
First published in print: Friday, December 5, 2008

SCHENECTADY — Former city police chief Greg Kaczmarek will spend up to two years in prison for his involvement in a drug ring — but taxpayers will serve a double-life sentence: paying for the disgraced ex-cop's pension and medical care for the rest of his life.
     
The scenario is not unusual. Convicted politicians, cops and other government workers have broken the law – and the bank – since 1940, thanks to the state constitution, which guarantees retirement benefits in Section V, Amendment 7:

"(M)embership in any pension or retirement system of the state or of a civil division thereof shall be a contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired."

That means lying, stealing, raping, molesting, murdering and any other transgressions couldn't stand in the way of a pension payout.

"If someone went to jail, they would provide us with an account for direct deposit while they were away," said Emily DeSantis, a spokeswoman from the state Comptroller's Office.

Kaczmarek, who pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance Tuesday in Schenectady County Court, will continue to receive health insurance as well his annual pension of $36,096.58.

He is far from the first high-profile state employee to find himself on the wrong side of the law. Some haven't been afraid to test the limits of the amendment.

Ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi pleaded guilty in 2006 to using state workers as a valet service for his wife and for delivering laundry — but he'll still get his $104,000 annual state pension payment plus another pension for his time in New York City government.

Ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in a prostitution scandal, is also in line to collect a state pension when he turns 62.

Schenectady police Investigator Jeff Curtis retired — and guaranteed a lifetime pension — shortly before he admitted in court last year that he stole cocaine from evidence lockers while he worked for the department's vice squad.

Kaczmarek does have one advantage over other high-profile municipal employees involved in misdeeds: He retired first.

Since Kaczmarek was no longer a police officer when his alleged offenses occurred, Assemblyman Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes, said he should be able to collect his benefits. Had Kaczmarek still been on the force, Canestrari said, he would have felt differently.

"Every misdemeanor shouldn't disqualify someone after 25 or 30 years," Canestrari said. "But if it's related to your work, during the performance of official duty, it should be in jeopardy."

Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany, agreed that automatically wiping out retirement benefits for a convicted criminal would be overzealous. Doing so could have dire consequences – and not just for the worker. "He'd be bankrupting his wife and children."

McEneny also said withholding a worker's entire pension would violate equal protection of law because, for example, a worker who had put in 20 years of service, then got caught gambling, would be punished more severely than someone who fell to the same vice after just 10 years of service.............................http://timesunion.com/AspStori.....p;newsdate=12/6/2008