Daily News from New York, New York • 97

EDITORIALS Let's stop this pension ripoff It's incredible, ifs infuriating! Municipal workers are ripping off millions from the tax- payers in pension abuses, yet City Hall continues to turn its "back on their outrageous behavior. And always -it's the same damned scam workers building up stupendous amounts of overtime in their last year on the job to fatten their pensions by thousands of dollars. Just look at some of the latest examples uncovered by the Daily News in the Fire Department: Richard Vizzini (who once led the only firemen's strike in the city's history) piled up $10,300 in overtime in 1981, then resigned. Half of that goes right into his pension base, which balloons his annual retirement income to $22,100. Not bad for a guy who was making $23,100 when he retired, eh? Firefighter Saverio XJamarda racked up a whopping $12,200 in overtime, then quickly filed for retirement That enriches his pension by $6,100 a year for the rest of his life.

The great majority of firefighters who are not parties to such raids on the public treasury may be willing to overlook the sharp-eyed schemers in their ranks but that would be a big mistake. Such costly abuses gravely endanger the already-shaky fire pension fund from which those honest men hope some day to draw their own retirement benefits. But the ultimate victims are all the honest taxpayers who now contribute most of the money to the pension fund and who will have to bail it out at a cost of millions if the ripoffs eventually bleed it dry. And how many working people even dream of a pension deal like Vizzini's or Camarda's? The shocking part is that these ripoffs go on despite a long-standing order by Mayor Koch banning workers from building up such huge overtime pay. Clearly, City Hall is bungling the job of preventing such abuses.

If the mayor has any thought of persuading the rest of the state that he's a good enough manager to be governor, he had damned well better get his hardnosed-boss act together, pronto. One way to start is by busting up the cozy civil service system under which a few well-placed workers let their favorite buddies get away with overtime murder in their final year, knowing that their turn will come, too. Another is to insist on an end to the ridiculous "provision that allows final-year overtime to count in the pension base. The accumulated cost to ordinary working people, who enjoy no such benefit, runs into the millions. It's high time the city called a halt Caution: Saboteurs at work The urban guerrilla movement that has targeted Westway for destruction has lobbed -another grenade at the project this time in Albany.

Worse, Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink is hinting there may be some merit in the questions raised by the wrecking crew. There is none. It's the same old rancid stew of distortions, misstatements and downright lies that for nearly 10 years has been thrown at this huge West Side renewal plan. But in the literature being circulated among the legislators there is a cunning new pitch to upstaters: If Westway is killed, there would be more money for highway projects elsewhere in the state. That's absolutely false, of course, but also evidence of arrogant unconcern for the thousands of city residents (26 of them drawn from the minority community) who will be employed in the building of Westway.

Would the anti-Westway crowd rather have the state's money spent on welfare than on job-creating enterprises in the city? We sometimes wonder. The issue is coming to a head in Albany because Fink and company are getting down to brass tacks on Gov. Carey's budget, which in- eludes about $21 million as this coming year's state contribution to the project. Remember, the feds will be paying 90 of Westway's actual cost, and try to think of any other city or state project or program that the feds fund that well! After much bickering and horse-trading, Mayor Koch and Gov. Carey signed off on Westway months ago.

The deal, so long in the making, was struck. Let's get on with the job. Pedestrians at risk Unless we get stricter enforcement of our traffic laws, we soon won't be able to cross the street or drive a car without a good shot at being injured or killed by some reckless driver. Witness the tragic episode of a 14-month-old girl being run down in her baby carriage by a car after the driver passed a red light Now there's the Bronx teenager killed by a speeding car whose driver, according to police, aimed straight at him and deliberately ran him down in front of his horrified friends. We know that street crime is the cops' top priority, but is it too much to ask that they enforce traffic laws at least some of the time? A wholesale and concentrated crackdown on speeders and red-light runners could get the message across that traffic rules are meant to be obeyed.

We would all breathe a little easier crossing the streets, and some of us would live longer. VOICE OF THE PEOPLE be greatly increased if the "ready-made check points" of the bridges and nels were utilized by installing a Department of Motor Vehicles computer at each crossing. 1 FJ5. Williamson Brooklyn A dire prophecy Someday Soviet Bear bombers and missiles will be pointing at our cities from bases in Cuba, Nicarauga, El Salvador and other countries, and the Soviets will be dictating their terms to. our president You can bet that the Reds won't bother to say thank you to all the Ed Asner types who helped them out so much with their conquest of South America.

Timothy Qulnlan Queens It's scholarships and loans for her or nothing I am most disturbed by Patrick Buchanan's column on President Reagan's proposed education cutbacks. I and other NYU student leaders marched in Washington, D.C., recently. Neither I nor my parents are affluent No mention was made of students who don't rely on mom and dad as the sole support of their education, yet still wish to better themselves. Regardless of whether I attend NYU' or another school, I could not do so if it were not for my loans and government-funded scholarships. Buchanan makes specific reference to the march in Washington-as a "protest of the overprivileged." Perhaps Buchanan and -Reagan do not understand that because of these proposals only the affluent kids will be able to attend college, including the city and state universities.

How did Buchanan pay for his higher education through government-funded scholarships and loans? Or does he have a college.education at all? Buchanan, perhaps you should check your sources of information, and be careful of how you insult the Future of America. Maris a Genna Manhattan Mad at the Post Office i It's unfortunate that we have trouble with incompetent misfits who have replaced some of the competent employes of our Post Office. They all know who they are. They give us a hard time when all we need is a stamp or some information. They refuse to serve us when confronted with something they don't know how to handle.

In all, they are negative in their own lives and still have the nerve to give us a hard time. They were put into the job to serve the people, not bother them. John Taktekos Holtzman scores Brooklyn District Attorney Holtzman has announced a get-tough policy with car thieves. This is a very commendable action, in light of high auto insurance rates. Detection and apprehension of these criminals would 8.

a (Please include name and address with letter. We will withhold both on 'request.) DAILYaNEWS 220 E. 42d St, Not York, N.V. 10017 (212) M9-1234 "is where buildings were forfeited to the city for non-payment of their taxes, this was done because owners saw it to their advantage to discard these buil- dings. Most of them were a hundred, years old.

They got out of paying back', taxes, too. Their greed had nothing to do with rent control. If rent control were abolished, all the landlords would ask for rent increases. Ralph Schmulbach Bronx Rent control advocate I believe it would be very unfair and unreasonable to discontinue rent con-, trot As of Jan. 1, 1 paid a 7 increase in my rent besides giving a $12 increase for fuel passalong.

When you. multiply this by the 64 tenants in this building the landlord is getting a substantial return to offset any increase in his expenses. The building owners never had it so good. If you are referring in a recenlMitbrMtolhastorth Bronx ROBERT M. HUNT, President and Publisher MICHAEL J.

O'NEILL, Editor and Executive Vice President HENRY K. WURZER. Executive Vice- President and General Manager JAMES G. WIEGHART, Executive Editor and Vice President -WILLIAM L. UMSTEAD.

Managing Editor JOHN J. SMEE. Associate Editor.