Letters to the Editor
Feels Betrayed by VSF Halt

To the Editor:

I am very thankful to Correction Officers' Benevolent Association President Norman Seabrook for all that he has done for the city Correction Officers, but when it comes to the Variable Supplements Fund, I see red whenever I read an article about how the COBA membership was always told that the fund was not guaranteed until 2019.

I was the facility uniformed timekeeper/personnel officer at a Brooklyn jail for many years. I was in constant communication with our central personnel office and always got payroll/pension/benefit information from the source, which in turn was passed on to the uniformed staff of our facility. A short time after Mr. Seabrook stunned the civil service world and obtained the Variable Supplements Fund, we were told that a bill was being submitted to convert the variable supplement to a defined benefit fund just like Police and Fire. We were told that the fund as a variable had the potential of very high yearly payouts as long as the stock market did well, but we could have years where we got no payout if the market was bad.

We were told that by converting to a defined benefit, we would know what we were getting until 2007 at which time we would renegotiate the payout. We were never told that the fund was not guaranteed until 2019 and it could dry up at any time.

Most retirees are now facing a 30-percent cut in their income. If we had known then what we now know, I'm sure many people (me included) would not have retired. What sense did it make in 1999 when the market was great to opt for structured yearly payouts when both the variable and defined funds had the potential of zero payout years? The bottom line is that we were never given the facts, and still we are being kept in the dark about what we are guaranteed in 2019. How much do we get then? I don't know, Can you tell me?

I have the original press release from City Hall announcing the conversion of the VSF to a defined benefit. It tells nothing of the 2019 guarantee. I never got a handout from the COBA explaining our new benefit. Can I be reinstated so that I can work until 2019?

VINCENT RECCHIO, Correction Officer (Retired)