YPD Officers Rally In Support of Disabled Officers Set to be Fired

On November 17, members of the Yonkers Police Department gathered on the steps of Yonkers City Hall to shed light on what they call the shameful decision by Mayor Mike Spano and the Yonkers Police Department to fire four, veteran, decorated Yonkers police officers who were all seriously injured in the line of duty.

Calling it, “a false claim of fiscal responsibility, YPD PBA President Keith Olson said, “the Mayor has decided to abandon his most vulnerable police officers, those seriously injured in the performance of their duties, taking away their health care in the midst of a pandemic and trying to take away their dignity using a seldom used civil service rule. This move is being made despite the City’s attorney advising not to do so.”

The officers that are slated to be unfairly terminated include: Police Officer Shavon Johnson-Acker, a 13-year veteran of the YPD and mother of two who injured her knee so seriously she suffered through five separate knee surgeries in her fight to return to fully duty as a police officer.

Police Officer John Sylvestri, a 12-year veteran and member of the elite Emergency Services Unit, who after undergoing knee surgery as a result of a line of duty injury, suffered from numerous pulmonary embolisms. Officer Sylvestri nearly lost not only his leg, but his life as well.
Police Officer Kirk Maher, a nearly 14-year veteran of the YPD who was injured so severely in an on duty car accident that he was forced to undergo dangerous spinal surgery.

Police Officer Marcos Mosqueda, a 9-year veteran of the YPD and father of three who suffers from debilitating spinal injuries as a result of an on duty car accident.

“Each one of the officers risked their lives protecting the people of Yonkers. Each one of these officers was seriously injured while performing their duties. Each one of these officers did everything they could do to return to duty with the Yonkers Police Department, including suffering through life altering surgeries. Each one of these officers has followed all the rules, have served their City and their police department with honor and integrity and have done nothing wrong,” said Olson.

Mayor Mike Spano, through spokeswoman Christina Gilmartin, explains that the City is using Article 71 of the NYS Civil Service law to move the officers off the City payroll and onto permanent disability. Gilmartin said that the officers have been on injury leave for, on average, four years each, and that the City, and its taxpayers have paid more than $6 Million for 10 offices on injury leave.

Olson added that the Spano adminstration did not handle the decison properly by having a conversation with all of the parties involved. But the City added that conversations about the officers on injury leave have been ongoing for more than a year.

What is notable is that the dispute between Mayor Spano and Olson and the Yonkers PBA is the first is Spano’s 10 years in office. Olson and the Yonkers PBA endorsed Spano in each of his Mayoral runs, and the YPD PBA was the first City union to come to a long term agreement on a contract.