The numbers are eye opening and I think there should be a "use it or lose it" policy. You shouldn't be allowed to rollover from one year to the next and stock pile tens of thousands of dollars in "owed" sick pay.Denver paid out $7.8 million to nearly 1,000 departing employees for unused sick and vacation pay last year, and one police division chief retired with a check for $92,000.
Steve Cooper, who was earning $129,000, walked away with that payout because he was owed five months of sick leave and three months of vacation.
Former Fire Chief Larry Trujillo collected a check for $66,000 when he retired last year, though $55,000 of it went toward his retiree health insurance.
Dr. Stephen Cantrill, the associate director of emergency medicine at Denver Health, collected $53,000.
What got my attention though was when I scrolled to the comments section for the article. There are a litany of comments attacking "Teh Unionz!!11!!" for this transgression. The logic, as it were , is that because unions negotiate sick pay into contracts for some city workers it is clear that all abuses should be laid at their feet. Besides the obvious logical fallacy here there's also the little matter of the commentators short memories. You see it was just over a year ago when another similiar scandal was unfolding, one that remarkably didn't cause such an outcry from my friends on the right.
Let me refresh your memory,
A little consistency in the commentators outrage would go a long way toward building credibility. I won't be holding my breath.Former Gov. Bill Owens' top appointees were able to leave state government with fat severance checks - including one for more than $55,500 - because of a policy change Owens made with two years left in office.
Owens in 2004 allowed his staff to begin building up vacation and sick leave. Previously, his employees who did not use all of their vacation or sick leave in a year lost that time...
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