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William Drossman is employed as the commander of the New Smyrna Beach Police department, the second ranked position there. City Manager Pam Brangaccio told the daily newspaper he had retired within the last 60 days. Despite several e-mails seeking clarification, city manager didn't admit she erred in saying his position had been vacated for two months via retirement. NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Police Cmdr. William Drossman was stunned when he read a story published in Saturday's Daytona Beach News-Journal that had City Manager Pam Brangaccio announcing he and two other city employees had retired in the last 60 days and that their positions would likely be eliminated in the upcoming fiscal budget because of declining tax revenues.
"That's news to me," Drossman said when contacted Saturday afternoon by phone. Drossman, who suffered a serious muscle injury a couple of weeks ago, had his wife go to the store and buy a copy of the newspaper so he could see it for himself.
When contacted again, he said he was taken aback. "That's just not right. I'm not retired. I'm employed by the city of New Smyrna Beach as (the) police commander."
Brangaccio never named the three employees -- only their positions and that they had retired in the past 60 days.
An initial e-mail sent by Headline Surfer was ignored, but after the Internet newspaper sent a second e-mail request cc'd to Mayor Adam Barringer and Commissioners Judy Reiker, Jack Grasty, Jim Hathaway and Lynne Plaskett that the city manager responded. And even then, she never explained why she said all three had retired, writing the following: "Comm Drossman announced his retirement to everyone at city hall and PD My understanding is that he now has a personal injury that I may delay the actual retirement. The position is budgeted through sept. 30th 2012. At that point the Chief has requested it be reclassified to a SGT position. The parks positions were Tom Roberts and Carol Lucas both already retired from city."
Drossman, second in command of the police force and employed as a cop with the city now for 13 years, told Headline Surfer, "Out of courtesy to my police chief and to anyone who had inquired that my answer was that I intended to retire by the end December 2012."
Drossman made it clear any such retirement on his part would follow city protocol, which is to put such a retirement in writing to the chief of police and copied to the director of human resources and the pension board. Drossman made it clear he never discussed retirement with the city manager and was surprised to read in the newspaper that she had him already gone for good, when, in fact, he remains employed by the municipality.
He was on personal leave from June 1-11, with intention of returning to duty June 12, but suffered a torn muscle June 6. He declined to get into detail on how the injury occurred, except to say it was serious and his doctor said he could not return to work until the first week of July at the earliest.
None of the city's elected officials responded to the e-mails sent to Brangaccio by Headline Server, a recurring theme for the better part of a year.
Brangaccio told the News-Journal in Saturday's story, headlined: "NSB considers leaving vacant positions open in new budget," that she was going to recommend the three open positions -- again with her stating the commander's position had been vacated by retirement -- that making these cuts was necessary because even though the city was going to have a 2.5 percent increase in the tax base, it would still fall about $130,000 short in meeting budgetary costs.
This is how the News-Journal started its story: Three city jobs now vacant because of recent retirements could be cut to help balance the upcoming budget, the city manager said.
Brangaccio was quoted as saying: "They are key positions that we are concerned that to be able to balance the budget, we may have to recommend that we actually cut the positions. "That's just the reality that we're dealing with this week."
Earlier this year, Headline Surfer acquired a municipal database showing what city employees were paid in 2011. Drossman was paid $68,623. Tom Roberts, parks and rec. coordinator, was paid $44,150; and Carol Lucas, an administrative assistant in that department, made $25,916. All three salaries actually totaled $138,691.
Brangaccio's salary alone -- $125,074 -- is nearly enough to cover the city's projected shortfall. She also has an assistant city manager making $105,000, a city attorney at nearly $208,000 and a chief of police just short of $110,000.
Even though he's second in command, Drossman actually makes far less than the two lieutenants below him and scores of sergeants and patrol officers, the latter two groups because of overtime. That's because Brangaccio has eliminated 10 police positions in the past three years, forcing more cops to work overtime.
Drossman's job elimination would be the 11th. And during the past three years that Brangaccio has made her cuts, the police officers have received no raises and may be headed to impasse because the city is offering a 2 percent raise while insisting they increase contributions to their retirements from 8 percent to 10 percent.
The city will consider Brangaccio's latest job cuts at a special meeting tonight at 5:30 at the city hall commission chambers, followed by the 6:30 p.m. regular city commission meeting.