{"id":216165,"date":"2026-06-11T04:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T04:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216165\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T04:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T04:16:10","slug":"allentown-city-council-hears-pitch-for-deferred-retirement-plan-for-police-allentown-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216165\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown City Council hears pitch for deferred retirement plan for police | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 Allentown City Council held a special meeting Wednesday to hear a presentation from the city administration and the police department to establish a deferred retirement option plan<\/a> as a benefit to help retain police officers.<\/p>\n

A DROP program is a popular retirement benefit that allows retirement-eligible officers to retire on paper but continue working and collecting a paycheck.<\/p>\n

While an officer in the program continues working, their monthly pension payments are diverted into a special account.<\/p>\n

A typical DROP participation period ends after three to five years, after which time, the officer receives a large lump sum from their accumulated pension funds, in addition to monthly pension checks.<\/p>\n

The programs are widely utilized by police departments to retain experienced veteran officers for a maximum of five additional years.<\/p>\n

The proposal comes highly endorsed from the police administration and the Fraternal Order of Police, but councilmembers were skeptical about the cost to the city and the actual need.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Charles Roca said he wanted to be clear that the program is not about a money grab for police officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about making sense with public safety, and part of that is an investment in the officers,\u201d Roca said. \u201cFor many years, Allentown has built its reputation on public safety, public works, public health, and in this capacity, with our officers. The DROP pension is something that establishes a retention tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roca cited there are currently about 40 officers who would qualify for retirement at the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Losing 40 officers would bring the total number down to 165, which Roca said could cost the city excessive overtime for the remaining officers until replacements can be hired.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecruitment is very difficult in this day and age, and many departments are fighting over the same pool of candidates,\u201d Roca said. \u201cLast year we had 14 retirements, and if we had the (DROP) pension back then, that number would have probably been four officers that would have retired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sgt. Chris Matthews, president of the Queen City FOP lodge, told council the membership of the FOP has voted in favor of having a DROP.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it is a mutually beneficial benefit for the City of Allentown as well as the members of the Queen City FOP,\u201d Matthews said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city administration said the current municipal obligation for police pensions is $9.5 million annually.<\/p>\n

If a DROP is implemented, that number could rise to somewhere between $10.6 million to $12.3 million.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Cynthia Mota asked where the city is going to find the extra money to fund the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m concerned about the taxpayers,\u201d Mota said. \u201cSo right now, we\u2019re going to be building a new police station, and that\u2019s going to cost a lot of money. \u201cWe have to be responsible, and this is irresponsible if we don\u2019t know exact numbers. We really have to be very conscientious when we look at all the projects and all the issues that the city has at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmember Candida Affa said she doesn\u2019t see the need for a DROP.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the concerns is this is forever,\u201d Affa said.\u00a0\u201cThis isn’t just for five years or whatever. This is forever. And I don’t want to be that councilperson 10 years from now that bankrupted the city because we made the wrong decision at a crucial time. I mean, we have so many capital projects going on, and this is the wrong time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council President Santo Napoli said Wednesday\u2019s meeting was just informational and that the legislation is not yet scheduled to appear on an upcoming voting agenda.<\/p>\n

Napoli said there will be additional discussions on the proposed bill.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Ce-Ce Gerlach said she would like to see hard facts from other police departments which have DROP programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 Allentown City Council held a special meeting Wednesday to hear a presentation from the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2748,2602,94596,153,155,154,14935,2750,94593,14934,94594,94595,94592,14932],"class_list":["post-216165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown-city-council","tag-allentown-police-department","tag-apd","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-candida-affa","tag-ce-ce-gerlach","tag-chris-matthews","tag-cynthia-mota","tag-deferred-retirement-option-plan","tag-police-chief-charles-roca","tag-queen-city-fop","tag-santo-napoli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}