Harold Schaitberger: So many pensions, so little time

NCPERS Payout Revealed

Note: Please keep in mind as you read this post that just last week, Schaitberger put out a video crying “woe is me/poor mouth”; he knows no shame.

Despite Harold Schaitberger’s millions of dollars in IAFF income and a nearly unlimited expense account, it has been written that he is like the guy who turns the couch upside down hunting for loose change.

He is the guru of greed.

He likes to crow that before assuming his present position in 2000, he was at the IAFF for over twenty years.

The IAFF was a second job.

Schaitberger led the National Conference of Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) and while working as their legislative director, was also employed at the IAFF in a similar role.

He even held the NCPERS job while he was a senior assistant to Al Whitehead, wearing two hats with endless opportunities for ethical conflicts.

Deferred Compensation

Deferred compensation plans advantage high income earners who do not need all of the income they make and wish to stash some of it in a tax deferred account.

Rare, indeed, is the young firefighter or paramedic who has spare thousands laying around they need to shelter from taxes.

Harold Schaitberger, no firefighter he, has always had a strong interest in deferred compensation legislation and rulemaking.

Was Schaitberger really serving the interests of IAFF members in his devotion to such legislation?

The NCPERS job was the perfect opportunity to feather his nest in several ways: more money and a place to put it.

As the NCPERS director, he could work on legislation which would directly benefit him.

Ironically, one of his current woes is that he apparently over-invested in a deferred compensation plan he may have initiated.

That’s called having so much money you don’t know what to do with it.

He probably claims ignorance of a system he was an expert at creating.

But the IRS will (hopefully) have the final say on that.

Yet another pension

When he was elected to the IAFF top spot in 2000, he gave up his job at NCPERS and received a payoff from them spread over 20 years.

The total could be $500,000 or more.

Perhaps legal if not proper, it makes his current situation all the more outrageous.

For the past twenty years he’s been receiving an IAFF pension while still employed there, with compensation of around $500,000 annually.

On top of that, he’s also had an annual payout from NCPERS, a job and an annuity he would likely never have had without his IAFF connection.

It’s pure Schaitberger, leverage all relationships to make a buck.

During the same time, and under his leadership, the IAFF has been plunged into fiscal chaos, needing $700,000 in reserve funds this year alone, just to stay afloat.

But Schaitberger is doing way better than just OK and on our dime, too.

Harold Schaitberger will never be satisfied till we are bled white by his schemes, cover-ups and deals.

Yes sir, he’s the guru of greed.