PHILADELPHIA – There is more drama about the controversial DROP retirement program, and this time, it involves the contentious campaign for Philadelphia’s 10th district City Council seat.
Did incumbent republican Brian O’Neill once give serious thought to joining the controversial program?
It sure looks that way, based on new documents that surfaced on Tuesday.
We know that most council incumbents who signed up for the retirement perk known as DROP paid a hefty price in the May primary elections.
Voters made clear that they do not think elected officials should be promising to retire, pocketing the lump sum check and in some cases running for re-election.
Which is why Brian O’Neill’s democratic challenger Bill Rubin was at city hall today, hand-delivering a letter to O’Neill’s office, once again demanding a clear statement from the incumbent, that he will not join drop- remember, as an incumbent, O’Neill is still eligible to get in on the perk.
Why the confusion?
Fox 29 political reporter Bruce Gordon spoke with O’Neill just last week and asked if O’Neill would ever join DROP.
“I have never enrolled in DROP. I’m never gonna enroll in DROP. End of story,” said O’Neill.
“I can say it fourteen times, but it comes out the same: I’ve never enrolled in DROP and I never intend to enroll in DROP.”
When pressed by Gordon, O’Neill said, “this is the first time somebody’s asked me!”
Now there is evidence that O’Neill once strongly considered getting into DROP.
Rubin used a “right to know” request to get his hands on an application to join DROP, signed by councilman O’Neill on November 30th, 2007.
Interestingly, O’Neill was quoted by an Inquirer reporter six weeks later, as saying he had not yet applied for the program, but was contemplating doing so.
Rubin’s reaction to the document?
“I’ve watched the interview you had with him last Thursday. I’ve watched the news reports in the different papers. And he’s clearly said that he had no intentions of ever getting into DROP- that he never applied- and that there was never any issue with him being in drop and he hoped that this would be the end of the story. And when i heard that i was kind of disheartened, because the facts are that he did apply in November of ’07.”
It is important to point out that signing this application is just the first step in a several step process to formally join DROP and we know O’Neill never completed the process because he is not in DROP.
But he took the first, big step, and Rubin says any suggestion to the contrary, is not accurate.
Councilman O’Neill did call Fox 29 late on Tuesday afternoon. He says he filled out the DROP form back in 2007 simply to find out about all of his possible pension benefits.
O’Neill said, “I was just making an inquiry.”
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