City's 2009 retirees will receive roughly $1.7 million a year in pension payments.
James "Jake" Jackowski, 61, driver and bodyguard for Mayor Matt Driscoll, received the highest pension of 47 city workers who retired in 2009, thanks to years of racking up overtime.
Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse police officer who spent eight years chauffeuring and protecting former Mayor Matt Driscoll retired with the highest pension of 47 city workers in 2009.
James “Jake” Jackowski, 61, now collects an $84,316.92 annual pension, according to the state Comptroller’s Office. That’s $23,235.92 more than his base pay would have been had he worked all of 2009.
Jackowski’s pension illustrates how overtime can enhance city workers’ retirement benefits for the rest of their lives.
All together, the city’s 2009 retirees will receive roughly $1.7 million a year in pension payments from the state’s $129 billion system, primarily paid for by taxpayers. In Syracuse, pensions averaged about $36,000 per employee in 2009, records show.
2009 retirees: See a list of pensions for all 47 Syracuse city employees who retired in 2009. (Note: TBD means that person's pension has yet to be determined.)
Jackowski’s pension adds up to more than double the norm, thanks to years of racking up overtime.
For six straight years, he worked more than 1,000 hours in overtime as Driscoll’s personal chauffeur and City Hall’s head of security. In 2004, he made more in overtime than he did in base pay.
The year before Driscoll took office, Jackowski earned $861.52 in overtime. In 2001, the year Driscoll became mayor in July, Jackowski’s overtime jumped more than 2,500 percent to $22,565.04. The next year, it climbed to $38,296.25, records show.
The Geddes resident resigned in late July after an investigation by the police department’s internal affairs division unrelated to overtime. He was also part of a federal investigation, which was not prosecuted. Officials would not comment on the investigations.
Cuomo looks at pensions
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has targeted 64 local government agencies, including Syracuse, in an investigation into “pension padding.” That is the practice of bending work rules and overtime payouts to inflate pensions.
Cuomo obtained from Syracuse a comprehensive list of employees’ pensions. This list included each retiree’s annual salary, overtime pay and overtime hours worked for each of the past eight years. It also included averages for all retiree salaries and overtime.
Cuomo’s office has not said when it will complete its review. Jackowski, a 39-year employee, never rose beyond the rank of police officer, a position which paid $61,081 in 2009. But the amount used to determine his pension was $112,422.60, said Comptroller spokesman Mark Johnson. That’s based on the yearly average of his highest 36 consecutive months of pay as an officer. The average includes overtime and could include other compensation such as accumulated comp time and unused sick days. Jackowski’s average amounts to $51,341 more than his 2009 base salary.
Driscoll picked Jackowski to serve as his bodyguard, city officials said. All of Jackowski’s overtime was earned legitimately under rules of union contracts, said First Deputy Police Chief David Barrette.
Jackowski did not return repeated phone calls and messages left at his residence. Driscoll did not respond to interview requests made through the state’s Environmental Facilities Corp., where he now serves as CEO.
Two paychecks
The Syracuse official in charge of revamping the city’s overtime system is getting two government paychecks — a partial state pension of $30,000 and a $94,386 salary from the city.
Deputy Mayor John Cowin came out of retirement as former fire chief to serve in Mayor Stephanie Miner’s administration. He will lead the newly formed overtime committee.
Cowin retired in early 2009 with an $82,312-a-year pension. But the pension system will only pay him $30,000 a year while he collects a second paycheck. That means he is receiving $124,386 a year.
Cowin said he sees no conflict in heading a committee whose goal of cutting overtime would lower pensions, because his pension was earned with the approval of local and state authorities. Jackowski is one of two 2009 retirees whose annual pension exceeded his base salary in 2009, records show.
The other is Sgt. Gerald Birardi, who made $8,712.60 more in retirement than he would have in base salary had he worked all of 2009. Birardi, who receives a $76,329.60 annual pension, declined an interview.
Birardi, a 35-year employee, collected much of his overtime responding to homicide scenes and other major crimes, Barrette said. “For the big capers, he’s the guy who came in,” Barrette said. “He was one of the go-to guys.”
Jackowski and Birardi were exceptions to the rule when it came to overtime among 2009 retirees, Barrette said.
Most rank-and-file officers regularly worked extra hours by signing up for scheduled overtime. That meant subbing for other officers or signing up for special details. Those might include Carrier Dome events, Armory Square patrols, downtown festivals and other community events.
OT oversight:
Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner has formed a committee to authorize all overtime and study ways to reduce it.
The committee will meet for the first time this summer. Miner budgeted a $2.5 million decrease in overtime next year, including a $1.6 million reduction in the police department.
Some supervisors will be able to authorize overtime without committee approval for emergencies such as homicides and water main breaks. Other overtime, especially within City Hall and even the mayor’s office, will be approved by the committee, Miner said.
Why? Overtime costs have increased from $14.6 million in 2005-06 to $16.2 million last year. That’s about 6 percent of the city’s annual budget. The police department paid out about $9.6 million last fiscal year; the fire department paid about $4 million.
How? The city is considering several ways to cut down on overtime. Officials are looking at whether work rules can be changed to cut overtime costs, whether higher-paid, veteran workers are receiving a disproportionate amount of overtime and whether it makes sense to hire more police officers rather than paying so much overtime.
When? Changes won’t happen overnight: Many work rules governing overtime can’t be changed until the next round of contract negotiations, Miner said.Pledging to cut down on overtime, Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said she did not fill Jackowski’s position of mayoral chauffeur. She took office in January.
Instead, Miner said she has staffers drive her, with an officer “occasionally” doing it during the day. Her staffers never receive overtime for those duties, she said. On “one or two occasions,” an officer has gotten overtime for driving her, Miner said.
In regards to City Hall security, Miner said she has an officer, Sgt. Dave Sackett, who works there but also has the job of maintaining the city’s vehicle fleet, 300 of which are police vehicles. When a City Hall security issue arises, Sackett handles it, she said.
Sackett has received overtime for after-hours City Hall security issues. One example was when an employee got locked out of the office late at night, Miner said. Sackett is also eligible for overtime for his duties as fleet manager and for special details.
Sackett this year worked 258.4 hours of overtime in nearly half a year, including 60.5 for City Hall security, according to city records. He received the bulk of his overtime managing the police garage, the vehicle fleet and Dome events.
By comparison, Jackowski put in 611 hours of overtime in his last seven months of employment in 2009.
James Jackowski's compensation
The following covers the compensation and overtime Officer James Jackowski received in his last 11 years of city employment.
| Year | Base Pay | OT Hours | OT Pay | Gross Pay* |
| 1999 | $41,880 | 140 | $4,262.40 | $51,132.27 |
| 2000 | $43,651 | 27.80 | $861.52 | $48,152.66 |
| 2001 | $45,733 | 668 | $22,565.04 | $72,037.87 |
| 2002 | $45,733 | 1,130 | $38,296.25 | $88,646.25 |
| 2003 | $49,008 | 1,227 | $42,536.25 | $103,726.34 |
| 2004 | $49,008 | 1365 | $50,409.45 | $105,177.89 |
| 2005 | $49,008 | 1,247 | $46,051.71 | $100,820.15 |
| 2006 | $53,048 | 1,003 | $39,959.52 | $109,256.88 |
| 2007 | $56,999 | 1,090 | $45,084.30 | $111,965.70 |
| 2008 | $56,999 | 937 | $40,000.53 | $102,609.63 |
| 2009 | $61,081 | 611 | $26,345.25 | $100,448.00 |
Source: Syracuse City Hall