Village to give retiring millionaire cop a huge, ‘criminal’ payout

New York Post – by Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein

Charge this cop with robbery.

Ray Dean, police chief of the 2.9-square-mile village of Westhampton Beach, is retiring with a bag of cash.

He is getting $403,714 for 15 years’ worth — or 531 days — of unused sick, vacation and personal time. The payment amounts to 4 percent of the village’s entire $9.7 million budget.  

Dean resigned on June 30, a day before a new mayor with a reform platform, Maria Moore, took office.

When village trustees authorized the golden parachute, those at the meeting gasped, The Southampton Press newspaper reported.

“It’s criminal. It’s outrageous. It’s outlandish. It should never happen in a small village like this,” said Jim Kametler, a former Westhampton Beach cop who served on the Village Board from 2004 to 2010.

In addition, Dean, who is only 53, will collect an estimated annual pension of $142,000 a year.

Dean was already a millionaire. He bought a house in Quogue for $1.3 million in 2005, owns a 32-foot boat, and his pay last year came to $226,236 — more than NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton makes.

But while Bratton oversees a force of 34,500 uniformed officers, Dean presided over 11.

And while the NYPD saw 111,335 major felonies last year, crime takes a holiday in the resort town of 1,700 permanent residents.

Murder is unheard of, the last rape was reported in 2010, and the department tallied only 46 serious crimes in 2013, including 37 larcenies and three stolen cars.

One shocking incident involved reported vandalism: an oceanfront resident claimed someone spray-painted her back porch white.

But the Westhampton Beach force soon cracked the case.

“Officers said the deck was not covered in paint but rather bird droppings,” the Press reported.

Dean spent 15 years in Southampton Town as an officer and sergeant before joining the Westhampton force in 1999, scoring a 10-year contract as its chief.

In contract-renewal talks in 2009, Dean threatened to sue the village, demanding pay for hundreds of hours of accumulated sick and comp time. This sum was folded into his final payment in June.

He was awarded a five-year contract in 2011 that called for yearly raises of 2 percent on average. It gave him 30 vacation days, 22 sick days and five personal days a year.

Dean got extra pay for longevity and for working at night and on holidays. His $165,032 salary last year was bumped up by $61,204 with the extras factored in.

By the time Dean packed it in, he claimed he had amassed 300 unused sick days, 10 personal days, 208 vacation days and 13 holidays.

He retires with full benefits based on nearly 30 years of police service, the state Comptroller’s Office says.

Dean did not return a message seeking comment.

http://nypost.com/2014/08/16/hamptons-village-police-chief-retires-with-400k-payout/