Deal may allow cop to retire

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A police officer who has been using his unlimited sick time nearly every day for more than two years may soon be offered a deal to leave the force.

The Schenectady City Council agreed Monday to ask the state Legislature for a special deal to encourage Detective Michael Kelly to retire.

The Legislature offered a deal several years ago for any officers in the state who had at least 20 years of experience, but at the time, Kelly was working full time and declined to take it. That deal had long expired when Kelly became ill in 2005.

The details of his illness have not been made public, but sometime before October 2005, he started calling in sick every day, using his contractual benefit for unlimited sick time. He’s been out almost every day since. He wants to stick it out in the department until he is eligible for retirement. The council wants a detective who can work.

Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said a deal in which Kelly could retire early would satisfy both sides.

“What we’re proposing here is a benefit to the city as well as Detective Kelly,” Bennett said. “There is no downside. The city has an opportunity to put an officer on who can work … and from Detective Kelly’s point of view, it’s a fairness issue. He’s done almost 27 years in the police department.”

Kelly was hired in 1981.

Council members seemed confident that the Legislature would reopen the 20-year retirement plan for Kelly. The city must have state permission to take that step.

Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said it’s the only way for Kelly to retire right away.

“He’s got 27 years. Twenty-seven’s not enough,” Van Norden said, adding that the retirement would be in the city’s best interest.

“We’ll have a spot opened up, another officer in the field,” he said.

For now, Kelly remains on the books, earning full pay while staying home. Last year’s figures were not available, but he used 243 sick days in 2006. That amounted to more than 11 percent of the total sick days used by the department.

CREDIT RATING

In other financial news, Mayor Brian U. Stratton said Monday that Moody’s Investors Service had upgraded the city’s credit rating.

The agency hadn’t finished its report on the city by the end of the day, but apparently gave the mayor a heads-up in time for him to announce it at Monday’s council meeting.

He said Moody’s had moved the city up one slot, to Baa1 stable.

“That is one notch below the Moody’s A-range,” Stratton said.

The Baa1 rating would bring the city to the same rating it had in 1999, before fiscal problems led the city into deficit and ended with the city rated at junk bond status in 2004.

At that point, the city was considered such a risky investment that no banks and few private investors would lend money. The city had to offer high interest rates in order to borrow money for paving projects and other annual capital expenses.

Investors now compete to loan money to the city, offering lower interest rates with every uptick of the city’s credit rating. Last year, the city saved $70,000 in its annual bond sale because of the Moody’s rating upgrade.

City officials had also asked Standard & Poor’s to issue a credit rating, and the agency gave the city an A- stable.

“That’s one notch below the Metroplex rating of A. So I think we’re doing well,” Stratton said.

Standard & Poor’s director Richard Marino said the rating was slightly below average. In the United States, the average rating is an A+, he said.

Still, he said, an A- is a good rating.

“It indicates they have made progress. Their economy has stabilized,” Marino said.

The biggest reason for the rating was the speed with which the city returned to financial stability, he added.

“The big thing was that it improved over a short period of time. That was the main reason. And it improved significantly,” he said.

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Categories: Schenectady County