IAFF: Does Lima Buy it?
The Edzo Jets to LA
Hot on the heels of his Boston swearing in by presumptive U.S. Labor Secretary Martin Walsh, IAFF president-elect Ed Kelly went west to meet with Frank Lima, IAFF secretary treasurer-elect.
Was a hatchet being buried? The peace pipe smoked?
Whatever else occurred, it produced yet another in a string of images where Kelly grins ear-to-ear and the guy on the other end of the handshake looks like he just had his pocket picked.
In Lima’s case, he did have his pocket picked, in a way.
Last summer when he spearheaded the effort to approve Schaitberger’s illicit pension, someone at the IAFF publicly disseminated Lima’s expense reports from when he flew to Washington, D.C..
At the time, pensions were high up on Kelly’s list of Schaitberger’s misdeeds and Lima’s internal approval of Schaitberger’s pension could not have been good news to Kelly the candidate.
Not only that, the leakers also sent along evidence that the information came from the IAFF financial record keeping system.
It was around the time that Kelly urged Local 854’s president, the well regarded Jake Lemonda, to run for secretary treasurer when Lima was also running.
We also now know that Kelly drafted the nearly retired Mark Ouellette to run against Danny Fortuna in the Eastern District Trustee race when Fortuna failed to produce votes for him.
Some would say a pattern of angry retribution emerges.
And there’s another side to this coin.
Ed Kelly went to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service with damaging information about Harold Schaitberger.
And a Kelly ally also went to the Justice Department.
Involving the Feds certainly takes on new meaning when viewed in the full context of Kelly’s other actions.
The sheen of the “cleaning up the IAFF” act starts to fade.
This is all especially relevant because Kelly viciously attacked 7th district vice president Rick Walsh, calling him a “rat” when Walsh was thought to be straying from the Schaitberger fold.
Kelly certainly has different definitions and standards for what constitutes a “rat” and all leaks are fine if they redound to his political benefit.
While in LA, and with Lima at his side, the oddest thing happened: Kelly received a well-wishing call from President Biden on his cell phone. Such calls are normally set up in advance suggesting that Kelly would use a call from Biden to wow Lima into the fold.
Did it work? Is Lima that easy?
It’s interesting to note that Harold Schaitberger became IAFF president in 2000 after years of working to win over affiliate leaders and quietly out maneuver likely challengers.
Kelly, in contrast, stormed the fortress from within, tossing grenades and laying down fire at a whim.
Even his supposed allies found themselves in the Kelly cross-hairs.
If Kelly’s actions can even be described as a leadership style it may not wear well for long.
It’s not a ship that many would wish to be on, grinning handshakes notwithstanding.
