LBA's Head to Run P.D. Pension Fund;

LBA's Head to Run P.D. Pension Fund

By RICHARD STEIER

Anthony Garvey, who for the past 16 years has been the president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, was named Aug. 14 by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly as Executive Director of the Police Pension Fund.

TONY GARVEY: Taking charge of pension fund. Mr. Garvey effective Sept. 8 will step into the post vacated by Michael D. Welsome, who retired at the end of July. That will give him time to oversee the ratification of the 26-month wage contract he negotiated just a week before the announcement that he was being placed in charge of the $21-billion pension system.

Selling Pact to Members

He spent most of last week visiting police commands throughout the city to explain the details of the tentative wage pact, which includes two 4-percent wage hikes, improvements in annuity and longevity benefits and a $3,000 per-member city payment to the Savings Incentive Plan that Mr. Garvey pioneered a year ago.

During his visits, he said in an Aug. 17 phone interview while bound for Brooklyn precincts, "I've heard, 'You coulda got 12 and 12, but you took 4 and 4 and sold out to get this job.''' He laughed, knowing that the great majority of his members realize that the wage hikes conform to bargaining pattern previously established by Sergeants, as well as Firefighters and fire officers.

RAYMOND W. KELLY: Taps a union man.

'Vote On Its Merits'

"I think they're going to look at the contract on the merits and vote it on its merits," Lieutenant Garvey said of his 1,600-member rank and file. Ballots were sent out last week and will be counted Aug. 31 by the Election Services Corporation. Mr. Garvey became LBA president in 1991 because of member unhappiness with a contract negotiated by his predecessor, whose leverage had been compromised by a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association pact whose structure had the effect of requiring Lieutenants to make greater givebacks to get the same benefits. Six years later, it seemed he might become a casualty of his rank-and-file's rejection of the wage terms he brought back from negotiations with the Giuliani administration.

Other Unions Ganged Up

Several other police union leaders engaged in a campaign to have that deal defeated, predicated on their belief that it would be better to await a pending PBA arbitration award. The PBA award failed to meet their expectations, however, and made it impossible for Lieutenants to get some of the benefits Mr. Garvey had negotiated under the vetoed wage deal.

In a rare case of the membership acknowledging that its leader should be absolved of blame for a disappointing contract result, Mr. Garvey was re-elected the following year and was not seriously challenged since.

"It surprised me," he said of his revived political career, "because it was my belief that with rejection of the contract would come rejection of the office. But once that [PBA] arbitration came in, it vindicated me, and I think the membership recognized that, as painful as it was that we lost some benefits we could have had."

His counterpart at the Captains Endowment Association, John F. Driscoll, said of Mr. Garvey, "He's been running the LBA quite competently for the past 16 years. I think he'll be missed by the LBA, but I also think his replacement, Tom Drogan, will do very well."

Term Ends June '10

Mr. Drogan, the union's first vice president and a board member for the length of Mr. Garvey's tenure as president, will complete a term that expires in June 2010.

Under the rules of the Police Pension Fund, if the choice for Executive Director is not a member of the NYPD, the Board of Trustees must approve him or her; in Mr. Garvey's case, the selection was at Commissioner Kelly's discretion.

The LBA head said he had expressed interest in the job shortly after Mr. Welsome announced he was retiring, noting that it was a position for which the NYPD's mandatory retirement age of 63 - Mr. Garvey is 60 - would not be a factor. "Obviously Commissioner Kelly thought it was a good fit having someone who'd sat on the Board of Trustees for so long," said Lieutenant Garvey, who statutorily became a member of the board upon becoming LBA president. "I understand the investment side, and the decisions on both investments and disabilities are truly made by the trustees rather than the Executive Director. It's not that complicated a transition."

'Suited' for Union Work

That does not mean he won't miss being a union leader. "It was probably the job best-suited for me," Mr. Garvey said. "Even though I'm a cop at heart, I was probably better at assisting members with various issues than I was at solving crime. You're problem-solving every day, and I never had a feeling when I woke up that, 'Uhhh, I've gotta go into work today.' It was always a pleasant experience."

He added, "I'm leaving behind very experienced and capable leadership in Tom Drogan and the rest of the board, so the union is going to be in good hands. I'm still gonna have my hand in, assisting the [NYPD] membership on a much-broader basis. I look forward to it, and I think it's a healthy change for me."