By Dan Murphy
One thing that Westchester homeowners and taxpayers have gotten used to is some of their public servants earning $250,000 per more per year. These civil servants can be police officers or firefighters, who work there buts off the last three years of their careers so that there pensions are larger than there salary was at the beginning of their service. This is entirely permissible but some belive unethical.
The other way that public servants take advantage of the taxpayers is through what is known as ‘double-dipping,’ where a public employee retires and starts to take a pension, but is then hired back at an additional salary.
Several Westchester employees have, or are, double-dipping. But the one that is now making news across the county is Harrison Schools Superintendent Dr. Loius Wool.
Let us point out that The New York State Teachers Retirement System allows educators over age 65 to collect their pensions and work full time, with no limit on their compensation. And also, it is up to the local community, be it town, city or county government, or school district, to offer to re-hire a retired employee. The obvious reason is that they are comfortable with the job performance of that employee and they want it to continue.
And that is the case with Superintendent Wool. The members of the Harrison School Board could have wished Wohl well and sent him off to retirmenet. But they wanted him to stay.
But at what point does the combined pension and salary and perks of a taxpayer paid employee become obscene? Wool, who has served 19 years leading the Harrison School Distrct, ‘retired’ at the beginning of the current 2021-22 school year at a salary of $412,413. He was also paid $343,678 in unused sick days over his 19 years.
According to the Journal News, Wool said, “I told them I was very committed to staying here and I said it was in your best interest and mine to structure it in a way that I could stay. My senior leadership brings value to Harrison.”
As part of the agreement, Wool will be paid $50,000 less than his top salary of $412,413, and members of the school board and the Harrison community are using that as a reason why they can call his rehiring “a bargain.”
Wool will earn a pension of $279,000 per year from the NYS Pension Fund. He will earn a salary of $362,000 per year, ranking him #2 in New York State for Superintendents salaries. His new contract runs through 2026-27. When you add the additonal compensation for unused sick days, Wool is at $700,000+ yearly.
Wool and three other Westchester Superintendents earn more than $300k. Scarsdale Superintendent Thomas Hagerman, at $369,684, has the state’s highest salary. Chappaqua Superintendent Christine Ackerman, at $301,275; and Bronxville Superintendent Roy Montesano, $302,202, are the other two.
While members of the Harrison School Board completely support the decision, some in Harrison don’t agree. “No person is worth this kind of a salary. If you want to make that much, you should be forced to go into the private sector. As a Harrison taxpayer I’m outraged. And I don’t see the Harrison Scholls on any top 10 lists of highest performing schools in the state.”
The policy of double dipping, and of allowing civil servants to max out the last three years of their salary to increase their pension, has always been permitteed by the State Legislature and the Governor, and they have the same right to ban both practices.
But that would anger the very same unions whose political muscle is used to elect our state legislators and our governor. It would also annoy communities like Harrison, who want Superintendent Wool to continue and appear willing to pay to get what they want.
Another Harrison resident told us outside of Trotta’s Pharmacy, “how dare anyone call this a bargain. That is an insult to any resident of Harrison and I’ve lived here 40 years.”
The other argument against double dipping is that it prevents someone else from moving into Wool’s position and from others moving up the ladder of employement in the Harrison School District, but in other positions as well.
“Are you telling me that nobody else could do this job as good as Lou Wohl? I find that hard to believe,” said Ms. Bricetti from Harrison.
