Authorizing City Council's Legislative Oversight Committee to hold public hearings on the potential effects of the Deferred Retirement Option Program on the City's workforce and City services.

WHEREAS, The Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) was initiated by the Administration, approved by Council, and has been in effect since October 1999; and

WHEREAS, All municipal employees of retirement age with at least ten years of service have the option to enroll in the DROP program, which places their pension's retirement funds in a higher-yield and tax-deferred account in exchange for up to four more years of service; and

WHEREAS, The DROP program has proven to be immensely popular, with nearly 2400 municipal employees signed up over the last two years; and

WHEREAS, More than 1500 of those employees signed up in the first three months of the program, and thus they will all be leaving the City's payroll in two years or less; and

WHEREAS, A disproportionate number of DROP program enrollees are uniformed police officers and fire fighters, with over 600 police and 400 firefighters enrolled; and

WHEREAS, It is critical that with such a potential dramatic change in the City's workforce, proper planning and recruitment efforts must be undertaken to ensure that institutional knowledge is transferred and City services do not suffer as a result of this well-intended program; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That authority be given to the Legislative Oversight Committee to hold public hearings on the potential effects of the Deferred Retirement Option Program on the City's workforce and City services.

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