Another police chief retirement, another huge end-of-career payout.

When Bayonne Chief Robert Geisler stepped down in October after more than 30 years on the force, he left a job in which he’d risen through the ranks to become the highest paid chief in New Jersey law enforcement.

Geisler’s long career and $338,254 salary put him in line for a pension in which he’ll receive nearly $236,000 a year for the rest of his life.

But Geisler, 54, also left with a parting gift: Thousands of hours of unused paid leave that he was able to cash in, providing him a severance worth $541,533 as he walked out the door, according to city records.

Those hefty payouts are often derided by critics as “boat checks” that allow well-placed retirees to sail off into the sunset at the expense of taxpayers. They’ve proven both controversial and hard to control, despite reforms state lawmakers enacted more than 15 years ago to bring them to heel.

It’s “not the first time it’s happened in state laws where the Legislature has an idea, but the follow through execution is not well addressed,” said Marc Pfeiffer, an expert in municipal governance who teaches at Rutgers University.

Pfeiffer said payments like Geisler’s demonstrate flaws in those old reforms, which have faced their own tough realities at the local level, where contractual obligations and strong public sector unions have blunted their effect.

“The answer is it’s more than just a good government issue, it’s a political issue,” Pfeiffer said.

Bayonne officials did not respond to requests for comment, and Geisler could not be reached.

But defenders of the payouts often cast them as the just rewards of a career in public service, saying the leave was earned through each employee’s dedication to the job. They note that every banked day off represents a day those workers reported for duty, when they could otherwise have been paid to stay home with their families.

Geisler built up more than 270 days of leave over his career — roughly a year and a half worth of days off — including vacation days, personal days, sick leave incentives and other banked time, according to a breakdown provided by the city following a public records request.

That time was paid out at the $164.75-an-hour rate Geisler earned as chief, a post he held for seven years after ascending through the leadership after starting as a patrolman in 1995.

Geisler cashed out 300 of those hours in July for $49,425, and received a check for $164,036 as he retired, records say. He is in line for additional checks of $164,036 this year and next year.

“Throughout his tenure, Chief Geisler has led our department with strength, compassion, and vision,” the Bayonne Police Department said on Facebook as he retired. “He guided us through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the safety of both our officers and our community while continuing to uphold the highest standards of service.”

The department wished him “health, happiness, and fulfillment in his well-earned retirement.”

Large payouts the size of Geisler’s are not unheard of. A 2023 investigation by NJ.com found that across the state, 780 of the government’s highest paid employees had received severances worth $76.7 million — including 47 who took in more than $250,000.

More recently, a $787,017 payout owed to former West Orange Police Chief James Abbott has drawn controversy. The Essex County township has yet to pay Abbott, who retired in December, amid apparent scrutiny by the Office of the State Comptroller.

The office, one of the state’s fiscal watchdogs, has criticized retirement payouts before, accusing towns of routinely skirting laws meant to check the size of those payments.

Those include legislation approved in 2010 that restricted sick leave payouts to $15,000 — a cap state workers have long been under — and limited the amount of vacation employees can carry year-to-year.

But that law only applied to workers hired after it took effect, allowing existing employees to continue to accrue larger amounts. That left legacy payments that, some observers say, will continue at least until the class of pre-2010 workers retire.

Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.