Keane cashes in $400,000 for unused vacation days. OMG!

[The_Choose_1]

Once again the Florida Times Union has done a front page story on the "Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension fund" Sunday 20th 2015 How to get rich and screw the tax payers of Jacksonville Florida. I can't believe this whole mess hasn't been looked into deeper then what the FTU has done. John Keane per the FTU hasn't used a vacation day in years? Come on you have got to be kidding. While the Cop & Fire pension fund gets bigger and bigger. This whole mess needs to be looked at by the Federal Government IMO for any wrong doings. We need cops and fire personnel but these people shouldn't retire with several million dollar pensions. The Taxpayers of Jacksonville Florida are being bent over and screwed without any lube..............................................  

[ggatsby]

Keane shoulders the blame no doubt. However, so does his board of trustees who are just as complicit as Keane. Their misfeasance lies not only in their sanction of Keane but also in relinquishing all fiduciary responsibility to the community. In addition to lavishing Keane with more sources of personal revenue than Google, they failed in preparing for an eventual successor which is a primary responsibility of a board. The bias of the police and fire reps on the board is not surprising but there is great disappointment in EWC president Nat Glover not grasping that he carries some of the blame of this out of control debacle. He's a better man than that.

[civil42806]

Its your underpaid abused civil servants, get used to it it will get worse.  BOW BEFORE ZOD.  Now que all the folks stating its not an issue.  Keane shoulders none of the blame, he played the system as it was built. 

[brainstormer]

I'm ready for some of our local politicians to step up to the plate and call out this disgusting abuse of public money and cronyism.

[civil42806]

Its your underpaid abused civil servants, get used to it it will get worse.  BOW BEFORE ZOD.  Now que all the folks stating its not an issue.  Keane shoulders none of the blame, he played the system as it was built.

NONE OF THE BLAME? Are you joking? So, just because you can exploit a system, you should? Real ethical.

get use to it and pony up!  If your looking for morality in that situation your going to be greatly dissapointed. 

[Overstreet]

When I was working managed  big construction projects worth many-many millions, and after 17 years with my last employer they only let me have three weeks vacation a year and I had to use it that year or loose it.  Keene certainly got a better deal.  Neither of us got to use much vacation time yet he is able to sell back OLD vacation time.  Who writes the benefits packages for his position?

[TheCat]

When I was working managed  big construction projects worth many-many millions, and after 17 years with my last employer they only let me have three weeks vacation a year and I had to use it that year or loose it.  Keene certainly got a better deal.  Neither of us got to use much vacation time yet he is able to sell back OLD vacation time.  Who writes the benefits packages for his position?

I'm pretty sure John Keane writes the benefits package for John Keane's position.

[TheCat]

John Keane hasn't used a vacation day in years.

That decision by the executive director of the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund has earned him a tidy nest egg to accompany his anticipated $323,158 in first-year pension payments.

Just since 2011, Keane has been paid $401,866 for more than 3,085 hours of unused time off.

That's equivalent to 385 days of vacation that Keane could have used but didn't. That's also the equivalent of the combined annual income of eight average families in Jacksonville.

Those figures are expected to grow either later this week or early next week when Keane turns in his final paperwork — including putting in for what is expected to be yet another year of unused vacation — and retires on Sept. 30.

Keane was planning to retire Sept. 18, but agreed at his board's insistence on Friday to stay on through the end of the month.

How many vacation days Keane is entitled to is unknown at this point.

Neither Keane nor his staff provided the Times-Union with the specifics of his vacation policy despite numerous requests for the related public records.

On Friday when asked in person, Keane would only say he's on the same plan as city employees.

Problem is, there are many city employee plans and human resources officials at City Hall say all paperwork regarding Keane is at Keane's office, not City Hall.

A check of two likely scenarios of city plans show they differ by seven days.

So Keane, who earns about $1,188 a day, could get a parting gift in the range of $64,152 to $72,468 just for vacation not used in the last fiscal year.

It was unclear on Friday how much other unused time Keane banked — or cashed out on — after his 25 years of service as the pension fund's first and only executive director.

What is known is that at least since 2011, Keane has been cashing in unused time annually with the exception of fiscal year 2014, the year he came under review of the city's ethics office after he came under fire when he cashed out $164,568 worth of unused time.

"I haven't had one in a long time," said Keane when asked the last time he has had a vacation. "I think it was in 2010. It's hard to get away when there isn't anyone here to do the work." Continued on link...

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-09-19/story/jacksonville-police-and-fire-pension-chief-cashing-out-unused-vacation

[Captain Zissou]

I want to know how many days he gets per year.  I get 14 and I feel like that is pretty generous.

[fsujax]

I am sorry, but this seems ridiculous. Who earns this much vacation pay in a year....I am in the wrong business.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

So Keane, who earns about $1,188 a day, could get a parting gift in the range of $64,152 to $72,468 just for vacation not used in the last fiscal year.

Putting the overall numbers aside, it's understandable.  54-60 days a year? 

I'm not saying it's reasonable, because I don't know what his job really entails, but if you start with a baseline 4 weeks of paid vacay written in his base contract, add in the 10 days of recognized national holiday and then you add another 2 weeks of PTO or a clause that allows sick pay to convert over....  not that excessive.

What seems to be excessive is the pension payments.  Should your pension pay out 100% or greater of your retirement salary?  (serious question)

[CutterJ]

How did he earn 125 vacation days in 2011 and 150 days in 2013? That just seems like a ridiculous amount of days off. In an average calendar year there are only 261 work days.

This means that in a given calendar year Keane was awarded time off greater than half the year. And he got to accrue it? That just sounds obscene. 

[thelakelander]

So Keane, who earns about $1,188 a day, could get a parting gift in the range of $64,152 to $72,468 just for vacation not used in the last fiscal year.

Putting the overall numbers aside, it's understandable.  54-60 days a year? 

I'm not saying it's reasonable, because I don't know what his job really entails, but if you start with a baseline 4 weeks of paid vacay written in his base contract, add in the 10 days of recognized national holiday and then you add another 2 weeks of PTO or a clause that allows sick pay to convert over....  not that excessive.

What seems to be excessive is the pension payments.  Should your pension pay out 100% or greater of your retirement salary?  (serious question)

I get 15 days of PTO (paid vacay+sick days) and 7 paid holiday days a year. There's no pension and no employer contribution for the 401k. You can also forget about attempting to roll those PTO days over into a new year as well. I'm in the wrong business!

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

So Keane, who earns about $1,188 a day, could get a parting gift in the range of $64,152 to $72,468 just for vacation not used in the last fiscal year.

Putting the overall numbers aside, it's understandable.  54-60 days a year? 

I'm not saying it's reasonable, because I don't know what his job really entails, but if you start with a baseline 4 weeks of paid vacay written in his base contract, add in the 10 days of recognized national holiday and then you add another 2 weeks of PTO or a clause that allows sick pay to convert over....  not that excessive.

What seems to be excessive is the pension payments.  Should your pension pay out 100% or greater of your retirement salary?  (serious question)

I get 15 days of PTO (paid vacay+sick days) and 7 paid holiday days a year. There's no pension and no employer contribution for the 401k. You can also forget about attempting to roll those PTO days over into a new year as well. I'm in the wrong business!

When I left Riverview Millworks (< 20 employees) after 9 years I had:  3  (company plan went up to 6) weeks of vacation (had to be planned and approved and the unused was paid out yearly in the form of a Christmas "bonus"), 2 weeks of sicktime (verified), varied PTO days that accrued so much based on hours worked, usually between 5-10 & 4 holidays. 

The pay wasn't great.  There was no bonus structure.  There was no retirement plan.  The company wasn't able to give raises during the last 6 years there.  I guess it's a give and take.  Now I work for myself, and there are ZERO paid holidays, but my boss is pretty lenient when I need a day or two off or don't feel like coming in until 9ish... 

[edjax]

This man can not go away fast enough.  Really wish him nothing but the  best in the future.  Yea right.