Retiring Police Director Parker Pockets $400,000

Turns out it wasn't a coincidence that longtime Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker retired on the same day County Manager Carlos Alvarez announced pay cuts for most non-union county employees: Parker did the math and chose to walk away with a $400,000 retirement check and an annual pension raise instead of staying and taking the hit.

Does this check come in the 10-foot cardboard variety?

According to County records, the bulk of his goodbye trip to the bank is courtesy of a rather generous County policy that doesn't require vacation time to be taken during employement or to expire after a given period. Parker, a 33-year veteran of the Police, had accumulated 58 weeks of unused sick time worth $250,548, as well as 803 hours of unused vacation time totalling $87,360. The figures were calculated using a regular hourly rate of $109 derived from his annual salary of $226,000.

"Everyone has a payout when they leave in terms of annual sick, holiday, comp time -- all of that that's accumulated," he said, before he was given a final figure.

(Perhaps the County, with a $444 million deficit that grows by $4 million each week, should to take a look at that policy. Just a thought.)

Even without the extra cash, Parker said retiring was still in his best financial interest. "If you're comparing to stay at a five percent pay decrease or retiring at salary and gaining every year a three percent increase in terms of cost of living, so when you look at the total picture it is a simple deduction to go ahead and retire and not take a significant hit in terms of pay."

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