Annals of New York public employment: Matter of Seiferheld v. Kelly

An opinion from New York’s highest court last month begins as follows:

Petitioner, a New York City police officer, retired in 2004 and was awarded accident disability benefits. In the following years, the police department received information indicating that petitioner was not disabled; that he had made false representations to the Pension Fund; and that he had ingested cocaine, thus becoming ineligible to return to duty. The City, understandably, claims that it should not have to continue paying him a pension.

Under New York law, however, the City is wrong, the court reluctantly concludes. Meanwhile (via Philip Howard’s Common Good) a New York law forbidding the closure of a unionized facility without a year’s notice has meant that a disused juvenile detention center upstate is being kept going with no clients: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says “We’re paying 30 staff people to baby-sit an empty building,” and calls it “bizarre.” And another state law requires that school districts field buses with capacity to seat every eligible child every day, which means that in districts like Port Washington, L.I., where many eligible children come to school by other means, buses routinely travel half full, at an unneeded cost the Port Washington superintendent estimates at $2 million a year.

Little-used Pennsylvania ADA ramps

Federal design standards have changed, so many little-used ADA sidewalk ramps in Berks County, Pa. and elsewhere will be torn up at great expense and replaced with new little-used ramps. “The borough [of Lyons, Pa.] has only a few sidewalks — with most yards running right to the street — so the ramps generally lead to areas that would seem difficult for wheelchairs to cross.” [Reading Eagle, h/t Tad DeHaven] More: Chris Fountain.

May 4 roundup

Beet sugar interests sue over “corn sugar” coinage

Public-spirited litigants Western Sugar Cooperative, Michigan Sugar Company and C & H Sugar Company, Inc., have filed a lawsuit charging corn refiners with false advertising in their recent campaign to relabel high-fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar.” “The sugar producers seek an injunction to end the advertising campaign and also seek damages, including compensation for corrective advertising.” [PR Newswire]