Anna Verna Remains Defiant About DROP

PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia city council president Anna Verna said she won't run for re-election this fall and she's not quitting because of her enrollment in the controversial DROP program.

DROP allows some city employees to collect retirement and a full-time salary at the same time, when they reach a certain retirement age.

Verna will get a DROP check for almost $600,000 from taxpayers when she leaves office early next year.

She also has made no apologizes in the past for benefitting from the program, which may cost Philadelphia taxpayers $250 million in the long run.

Our Claudia Gomez asked Verna, at a press conference, if taxpayer outrage over DROP was the reason she was leaving office.

"Unequivocally, No! No … no … no, " Verna said. "It accounts from the amount of time I've been in office."

Verna then tried to change the topic and asked for questions that weren't about DROP.

Philadelphia City Council President Anna Verna has confirmed she will retire and will will not run for a tenth term.

"This has been my life’s work, so it has been a most difficult decision that I have made," Verna said in a press release.

Verna is now the fourth of the 17 council members to not run for re-election. All four, coincidentally, have been in the city's DROP program.

Council members Donna Reed Miller, Jack Kelly and Joan L. Krajewski also will leave office after November 2011.

Miller will collect $195,782 from the DROP program, while Kelly will get $299,163. Krajewski took a DROP payment of $274,587 in 2008, retired for a day, and returned to work at a salary of $117,990.

There are two leading candidates to replace Verna as council president: Marian Tasco and Darrell Clarke. Tasco is also in the DROP program and she would currently collect $478,057. Clarke didn't enroll in DROP.