FDNY union officer blasts Mayor de Blasio, City Council speaker for not backing pension benefits boost

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 3:16 PM

An FDNY union officer called out Mayor de Blasio because he doesn’t back legislation that boosts cop and firefighter pension benefits.

An FDNY union officer slammed Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito as indifferent to uniformed workers because they don’t back legislation boosting cop and firefighter pension benefits.

“Worn a uniform & put your life on line (vets, cops & firefighters)? @BilldeBlasio & @MMViverito don’t care about you,” Jim Slevin, a vice president with the Uniformed Firefighters Association, tweeted Wednesday.

He also included a link to a Daily News story in which Assemblyman Peter Abbate, who supports the pension boost, blasted the mayor for refusing to back the bill.

An angry Mark-Viverito said that Slevin’s tweet was below the belt.

“I think that’s an irresponsible statement. I think this Council has stood strong and we continue to stand alongside our police and our firefighters,” she said.

Melissa Mark-Viverito called the tweet “irresponsible.”

She added: “I know that it gets to be a heated conversation but I think that we should be really careful in the words that are used.”

After the News reported her comments, Slevin changed his Twitter bio to “irresponsible.”

Currently, police and firefighters hired after 2009 receive disability pensions equal to only 50% of their annual salary.

Those hired earlier receive 75% of their salary.

Jim Slevin said the mayor and City Council speaker “don’t care” about veterans, police officers or firefighters in his tweet.

In a planned hearing Friday, the Council will discuss the issue and consider a plan that de Blasio is pushing that includes more modest benefits.

Gov. Cuomo is supporting proposed state legislation that would give the new hires the same benefits as older ones.

A spokeswoman for the mayor said that his plan increases protections for new hires but doesn’t bust the budget.

“It delivers for our workers without rolling back Gov. Cuomo's vital reforms to our pension system to protect the taxpayer reforms that the legislature itself passed and the Governor signed only a few years ago,” said spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick.