The estimated half-million-dollar payout for retiring Jersey City Police Chief Phil Zacche's unused time has a Republican lawmaker renewing her call for curbing the practice of paying public officials for their accumulated vacation, sick and comp time.

State Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Red Bank, issued a statement yesterday calling six-figure payouts like Zacche's "egregious." Zacche is retiring in June after more than 38 years. He has more than 450 unused comp and vacation days valued at $512,620.

Lawmakers like Beck have long griped that public entities should cap the amount its retiring officials are paid for unused sick, vacation and comp days.

"It's even worse when it's to an employee of a municipality that is heavily subsidized by state taxpayers living elsewhere," Beck said. "Monmouth County residents who struggle to pay their own property tax bills will end up paying for the Jersey City police chief's $500,000 retirement check."

Beck is the sponsor of a senate bill that would cap payouts moving forward at $10,000, one of 15 bills addressing the issue that have been introduced in the state Legislature. A bipartisan bill that would have implemented a $15,000 cap was given a conditional veto in 2010 by Gov. Chris Christie, who said he wanted the practice ended, not curbed.

Carmine Disbrow, president of the Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association, said in a statement that Zacche "deserves to be praised for his service, not made a pawn in efforts to score cheap political points."



"While Beck has played partisan politics and issued press statements from the comforts of her Red Bank office, Chief Zacche has put himself in harm's way every day for 38 years protecting the residents of Jersey City," Disbrow said.

Beck is seeking re-election this year and is facing an aggressive Democratic challenger hoping to capitalize on recent Democratic gains in Monmouth County.

Of Jersey City's top officials, Zacche is owed the most in unused time, followed by Business Administrator Bob Kakoleski, who has 245 accumulated unused days valued at $118,420; Tax Assessor Ed Toloza, 216 days valued at $90,575; and Human Resources Director Nancy Ramos, 94 days valued at $39,298.

The city in total owes $116,308,347 for 300,541 unused days to all its workers, the largest sum owed by any New Jersey municipality (Newark's total is $53 million). The police force is owed the most time, 148,784 days valued at $72,466,520, followed by the Fire Department, 103,363 days valued at $35,519,027. The figures can be found on the city's user-friendly budget.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop defended his administration from criticism on Twitter Tuesday, saying Zacche's payout is the result of decisions made by prior administrations.

Jersey City taxpayers will eventually find some relief. A city official touted Jersey City's new contract with its firefighters, which does not allow firefighters to accrue vacation and comp time if they are on sick leave for 14 days or longer. The city under a prior administration reduced terminal leave days for new hires from five to three per year.

Beck's latest bill has received no traction in the Democratic-led Legislature. She and two other Republican lawmakers wrote to Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, both Democrats, on March 30 urging them to move one of the sick leave reform bills forward.

Prieto told The Jersey Journal he has no objection to limiting sick leave payouts, but he said other issues have pushed that issue to the "back burner." He noted that nothing stops municipalities from passing laws restricting such payouts on their own.

He added that payouts like the one coming to Zacche "are the exception, not the rule."

Prieto himself has a six-figure payout coming to him. As Secaucus' construction code official, Prieto has accumulated 296 unused days valued at $137,683, according to that town's 2016 budget.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.