A police sergeant who retired four and a half years ago never received payment for the sick and vacation time he was due. After repeated requests to the borough went unanswered, a resolution to pay the money was only recently approved.
At last week’s meeting the council approved a resolution to compensate retired Rutherford Police Sergeant Kevin Scannell. Scannell, who retired in July of 2003, ended his career with 183 unused terminal leave, sick, vacation and personal days at a daily rate of pay of $402.72, for a total of $73,698. The resolution authorizes Cortright to pay Scannell five equal payments of $14,740 over the course of the next five years.
Borough attorney Lane Biviano stated that Scannell had made multiple previous requests for the amount but had never received a response.
"Why no one acted on it, why it wasn’t sent to the counsel, I don’t know," said Biviano. "He said he spoke to the previous administration and nothing happened… It would be my recommendation to seek to remedy the situation."
Cortright said he received at least four calls from Scannell regarding the money over the course of several years. Cortright said he passed the information along to then borough administrator Timothy Stafford, but subsequently didn’t hear anything else about it.
Biviano said he and Mayor John Hipp met with Scannell after being contacted by him shortly after the beginning of the new year.
"We asked if he could take it out over a five year period so it wouldn’t hurt the borough," said Hipp. "We wanted to do the right thing given our ability to pay."
Former council police liaison Ray Frazier said he had no recollection of item ever appearing on the agenda.
Councilwoman Maura Keyes noted that the borough never received a request from Scannell in writing.
The specifics for how and when retirement payments are to be disbursed are not spelled out in the borough’s PBA contract, according to Mary Kriston.
