More than three-quarters of FDNY employees who retired last year qualified for annual pensions exceeding $100,000 — with many awarded extra because of disabilities related to 9/11, a new study and data reveal.
Forty of the 491 retirees landed gold-plated pensions of more than $200,000 a year, according to the study by the Empire Center for Public Policy.
The largest pension went to retired Assistant Chief James C. Hodgens, who once headed the Fire Academy and was eligible to collect $282,476 a year.
He qualified for a disability pension, which enables uniformed officers to retire with pension payouts of at least 75 percent of their final salary instead of usual 50 percent.
Such disability pensions made up 60 percent of all of the department’s retirement costs last year, according to a Post review of the FDNY’s annual pension report.