Greetings again:

Good questions, Gnu. My civil appointment date is Feb. 1, 1974. I need 30 years credit for a full pension. I worked 4 months and 13 days as a provisional before being appointed, so my effective 30th anniversary would be Sept. 18, 2003. However, the New York State legislature passed a law in 2000 that gives me an extra 2 years credit. That means I reached the equivalent of 30 years on Sept. 18, 2001. As such I can retire without a penalty.

But it's not that simple. My pension formula is made up different components. One of them is a defined benefit based on a percentage of the average of my highest 3 years earnings. For every additional year I work, that portion goes up by 1.7 percent. The remainder of my pension is made up of annuities, meaning the older I am when I annuitize, the more I would get.

There are other factors as well. For example, I have accumulated approximately 90 sick days. When I retire, I can cash in half of them at 1/200 my annual salary on the last day. On July 1, if I revert to my previous job title, those days will be worth perhaps 20 percent less. The same thing goes for 2 months of vacation I am owed. It looks like Janice is right about wanting to push out old-timers.

Janice is also right that I am not in the worst of situations, just a very annoying one. I've been in one supervisory job or another since 1999, but I have a job with 25 years seniority to fall back on. The people who are really being screwed by Mr. Bloomberg's cut backs are the people on the bottom of the ladder, those in the lowest paid jobs with no previous positions they can revert to.

There are other nasty things happening at all levels of New York City employment, one of which is changing many supervisory and administrative jobs into "managerial" jobs. As management, employees are put on individual yearly contracts, lose all civil service protection, and lose the right to be represented by a union. They are also held to annual performance standards that are impossible to meet. That gives Bloomberg and his underlings cause to not renew a contract as the see fit. Lest you think that it's only the top dog positions that are being called managerial, think again. The city is putting quite a few jobs under $50k in that category.

And, Don, thank you for your concern about health benefits, but in my case it's not a problem. If I retire, I get the same basic health benefits as any active New York City employee. It's just some of the optional benefits that may be reduced.

--- Steve