That pension looks like a million bucks; take another 100 grand for good measure

Pogo said it best for public em- ployees in the state of Ohio: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

At a time when tens of thousands of public employees are trying to make the argument that they are just working stiffs like everyone else, trying to make a living and pay the bills, along comes a dramatic example that causes a taxpayer to say, “No, you’re not just like me.”

This week’s worst case example came out of the Youngstown Board of Education with the announcement of just how big a going away gift the district’s outgoing superintendent will receive. Some numbers have a lot of zeroes. This one just happened to have a lot of ones: $111,153, but the effect is the same. To most people it is big. To some it is huge — equal to near five times the median annual income for a Youngstown resident.

Never sick, never off

This extraordinary amount was in recognition of Webb’s apparent inability to pull herself away from the job for sick days, personal days and vacation days.

Over a career spanning nearly 35 years, Webb accumulated 285 sick days, 56 personal days and 72 vacation days. And for that she gets a check with all those ones in it.

Sick days are a marvelous benefit for those workers who have access to them — and have the misfortune to get sick. To turn that fringe benefit into a cash cow for departing workers is a piggish practice. It is a rare taxpayer who gets a comparable benefit.

If an employee is sick — unable to work up to par or in a state of contagion that endangers fellow employees — he or she should stay home. If they never have to use a sick day, they should consider themselves lucky for that reason alone. As to vacation days, most private companies have use-it-or-lose-it policies. Amassing two and a half months for future use or cashing out is a benefit almost exclusive to public employment. As for personal days — paid days that can be used virtually on an employee’s whim — those are creations of public employment that probably shouldn’t even exist, and certainly shouldn’t be allowed to accumulate.

It is all the more remarkable that Webb was able to amass this windfall during a tenure that saw the school district she was running wallow in academic emergency for two years and become the first district in the state to be declared in academic distress. If that seems a harsh assessment, so be it. We will leave it to others if they choose to explain why a superintendent should not be held responsible for a district’s dismal performance.

When is enough enough?

But regardless of Webb’s level of performance during her various positions in the Youngstown City School District, taking an extra 100 grand on her way out the door is a disgrace. She’s eligible for a lifetime pension of about $80,000 a year. Given normal life expectancy, that pension has a value of more than $1 million. And yet that wasn’t enough.

She took a bonus equal to the salaries of three starting teachers on top of it.

No one should be surprised that the people paying the taxes resent those kind of excesses among public employees. It is not as if this is something new, or a phenomenon of education. Stories like this about city council aides, police and fire chiefs, police officers and firefighters, heads of various municipal departments — even mayors — have been appearing in this paper for more than a generation.

There’s momentary outrage, followed by no changes, followed by the inevitable report of another departing public servant hitting the I-never-got-sick and I-never-took-a-day-off lottery.

But now there are signs that the people who have paid for those lottery tickets are fed up. They might even be angry enough to demand changes.