To the Editor:

The city of Norwalk has a number of disasters that have been poorly addressed by the mayor, chief of police, Thomas S. Hamilton, Fred Wilms and the Board of Estimate. They apparently are pleased with the budget that they have approved.

I personally do not believe that they considered the current situation at all. Companies are downsizing, some are going out of business, some are laying off employees. Those still employed very often are not receiving pay increases, their medical benefits are being changed and the amount of co-pay increasing. City Hall does not have to be efficient; they only have to get the money they want by increasing taxes.

Wage increases for city employees are running at approximately 3 percent for the next year. What a blessing to be employed by City Hall.

Our roads are in need of repair. Also, our roads have speeders, and every kind of law infraction that you can imagine. Rilling and Moccia have the Slow Down Week, but the only individuals that receive benefits from that are the police with overtime pay.

The DROP (Deferred Option Benefits) program should be called the Disaster Obscene Ridiculous program. According to Lt. Andrew Gale, approximately 40 officers are eligible for retirement in the next three years. This, of course, would mean that 40 new officers would have to be hired. That part of the scenario is simple. What it also means is that the departing officers could be 50 years old, which would mean they could collect a pension for 30 to 35 years.

The math is wonderful, 40 x 30 x $65,000 = $78,000,000 We are so lucky this program was approved. Looking at it another way on a per yearly basis, the cost would be 40 x 65,000 = $2,600,000. Just a fraction of our money ... our money.

We need to also take into account that while 40 police officers may retire within three years, how many will follow the first group to take advantage of this DROP program?

Edward Skeen Sr.