IAFF Crisis: Save Your Money and Do the Right Thing, Too
The 0% Convention
IAFF Secretary Treasurer Ed Kelly has made it crystal clear that our union is in serious financial distress because of improper spending, poor management and lack of executive board oversight.
He reports that the IAFF experiences “periods of lean cash flow [which] suggest that the Executive Board needs to continue to focus on reversing those trends.”
“Lean cash flow” is a delicate phrase for more money going out than coming in.
But it gets much worse.
Despite the fact that Schaitberger has turned every relationship into a potential moneymaking deal, our balance sheet teeters on the brink of collapse; it turns out that his scams are not the path to financial security.
Many IAFF members fail to realize that they foot the bill for the pension systems of IAFF employees and officers.
Kelly reports that the two-year payment just to keep these poorly funded pension systems afloat will be +/- $16,000,000 of your money.
If you haven’t cared that Schaitberger has been taking an improper pension for fifteen or more years you should now, because you are footing the bill.
The financial situation is so dire that the IAFF board agreed to take out a $2,000,000 loan just to narrow the shortfall.
Like the U.S. government, we now borrow just to stay afloat.
And, IAFF leadership has begun to draw down our reserve fund, created for emergencies, just to address their poor decisions and greed.
Kelly said, “The withdrawals from the [Reserve] Fund were for the following purposes: $1.4 million for the pension obligation, $700,000 to balance the FY2020 budget, and $550,000 for severance payouts.”
That’s right, despite all the money IAFF members contribute through dues and all the shady deals Schaitberger engages in, they still needed to take $700,000 from reserves just to break even on the budget.
So much for living within our means.
And, by the way, that eye-popping $550,000 in “severance payouts” may have been for just one or two people who left the IAFF, nice work if you can get it.
There are other examples of gross financial mismanagement, but do we really need more?
A Simple and Effective Solution: No Increase in Member Dues
The IAFF convention has been postponed from August till January 2021, and while that’s not a sure thing either, it’s definitely certain that Schaitberger, Kelly and the vice-presidents will come crying and begging, hat-in-hand to bail them out with a variety of dues increases which you will have to pay.
This will happen through “resolutions” submitted by the board or various locals. They will sail through the committee process because Schaitberger decides who serves on the committees.
But, it’s not a sure thing once it moves to the convention floor, there locals have a say and the say should be a resounding “no.”
The first no vote should be on the automatic increase theoretically to keep up with inflation.
Then, every other resolution with a cost factor should suffer the same fate: no, period.
When the “top dogs” start to whine and their haunches quiver like a pup in need of a piss, they should be told to do what we all have done during the Covid-19 pandemic and recession: tighten your belt and rearrange your priorities.
Schaitberger has pimped the IAFF out including shaking down sick kids along the way and still the cash till is empty.
It’s time for IAFF rank and file members to retake control of our union and there is not better way to do it.
Tell your convention delegates to vote no on all resolutions with a cost factor.
Tell your district vice president to oppose all dues increases.
It’s time to take a stand.
(I am spending $1,000 of my personal funds to spread this critical message and I receive no funding or payment of any type for this writing.)
