Retirement has proven quite profitable for Nicholas Sacco, the state senator and North Bergen mayor who retired from the township’s school district in 2017.
The 74-year-old Sacco has received $269,730 for unused sick days from the North Bergen School District spread over the past five years, documents obtained through a public records request show.
Before he retired, Sacco was making $269,060 a year as the district’s director of elementary and secondary education. According to the records, Sacco cashed in 601.5 sick days at his retirement. Per district policy, he was eligible for one half-day’s pay — roughly $450 — for each sick day he took.
The figure, not wildly outrageous by Hudson County standards, is in addition to the $220,000 he receives annually in his teacher’s pension payments.
“Mayor Sacco worked for the North Bergen Board of Education for nearly 50 years and his steady guidance, leadership and excellent job performance helped our schools become one of the best urban districts in the state,” George Solter, the superintendent of North Bergen’s public schools, said in a statement.
“Since his retirement, the mayor has received only the compensation that district policy and its collective bargaining agreement mandated, and he has been treated exactly the same as any other similarly tenured school administrator or teacher would be,” said Solter, who despite being superintendent, earned tens of thousands less than Sacco between 2013 and 2017.
Sacco, who receives salaries as state senator ($49,000) and mayor ($40,000) as well as the pension, is believed to be among Hudson County’s highest-paid public employees. He also makes some cash on the side from performing weddings, the sum of which “varies by year depending on the number of ceremonies,” according to spokesman J.P. Escobar.
Last year, he made $6,800 from weddings, Escobar said.
Public employees across the state have made millions by cashing in their unused sick time and vacation days upon retirement. But such payouts — often called “boat checks” because they would cover the purchase of a boat — have drawn criticism in New Jersey for years, with many charging that the practice enriches elected officials at the expense of taxpayers.
Sue Altman, the executive director of progressive organization New Jersey Working Families Alliance, said the failure to end payouts like Sacco’s “(make) people feel like their public officials aren’t doing the job they were elected to do.”
“This is exactly the type of thing that makes people not believe in New Jersey’s legislature,” Altman said.
Legislators have taken aim at such perks before. Per a 2010 New Jersey law, local officials’ payouts are capped at $15,000. And the practice of holding two elected offices, called double-dipping, was outlawed in 2007.
But in both cases, the rules did not apply to Sacco, who has been mayor since 1991, state senator since 1994, and worked at the school district for 49 years. Sacco and others whose careers pre-dated the law were “grandfathered in” and not affected by the legislation.
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July 13, 2021 at 05:03AM
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School district retirement is smooth sailing for state legislator with $270K ‘boat check’ and $220K pension - NJ.com
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