District Police Chief Charles Ramsey will get his $60,000-a-year pension, the D.C. Council decided Tuesday.
The $16,000 raise, from the $44,000 the chief agreed to in 1998, ends years of debate about whether Ramsey, 56, had been promised — or whether he’s earned — the more lucrative deal.
“He’s entitled to a pension plan,” said Ward 5 Council Member Vincent Orange. “Let’s give him his money and let’s go on recess.”
Ramsey, at eight years the District’s longest-serving chief, left Chicago in 1998 six months shy of a service promotion that would have come with a similar retirement package upgrade.
The control board pledged to revisit his pension plan after he was hired, Ramsey and his supporters say.
Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans, who led the judiciary committee when Ramsey was hired, said the promise was made.
“Since day one it has always been the intent of the people involved in this to give Chief Ramsey the package that is before us today,” Evans said.
But Ward 4 Council Member Adrian Fenty said the pension increase isn’t justified considering the complaints he’s hearing about crime, responsiveness and officer deployment.
“If the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department is not doing the job that all of the residents expect then the chief doesn’t deserve to get a compensation increase,” Fenty said.
Council Members Kathy Patterson, who killed a similar proposal three years ago as judiciary chair, and David Catania, also opposed the increase.
“The chief should get the terms he agreed to,” Catania said.
