The options for the Chattanooga City Council are not as murky as they may seem regarding a contract for police Chief Freeman Cooper. The contract would allow the city to keep him on board at his retirement and permit him to begin collecting an annual pension of almost $80,000.
The options are: Pay more for three additional years of stable service or pay less and give someone else qualified the job.
Nobody can blame Chief Cooper for announcing his retirement and then offering to continue for three years if granted a contract and enhanced retirement benefits. At age 58, he's accrued enough years on the job to draw pension benefits and work in the private sector -- a common strategy for public servants who've put in their time.
Because Chief Cooper has maxed out on retirement benefits he can earn through the city's pension plan, he's saying he'll continue working if he can collect a deferred retirement option plan, known as a DROP. That retirement bonus would amount to an estimated $174,000. If the chief stayed on under his current status, his heirs would not be able to collect the lump sum if he died.
The City Council this week was deadlocked in a 4-4 vote on whether to keep the chief on under contract or let him retire. The nays apparently are troubled that Chief Cooper could earn more than $300,000 next year from all sources combined.
One has to remember that his original pension of almost $80,000 annually already has been earned. Nobody can or should begrudge the chief his right to draw that amount.
The only potential large extra cost to the city for keeping the chief on board involves the six-figure DROP benefit. That total is what's at the heart of the City Council's difficult decision.