IAFF Trustees: A Failure in Every Respect
The Schaitberger Smokescreen
The IAFF has an elected board of trustees whose sole purpose is to oversee our finances.
Our Constitution and By-laws spell it out:
The Board of Trustees shall check the books of the Association at least once each year and at such other times as they deem advisable…[and] shall have full access to all books and records of the General Secretary-Treasurer pertaining to financial matters of the Association. The Board of Trustees shall make a report of their findings on examination of the books to the Executive Board and to the delegates at each convention.
Here we should pause and settle on a legal definition of trustee:
an individual person or member of a board given control or powers of administration of property in trust with a legal obligation to administer it solely for the purposes specified.
Who are they?
Eastern Trustee
Western Trustee
Canadian Trustee
Together, they are tasked with ensuring fiduciary propriety at our union but instead share a huge portion of blame for the scandalous crisis we now find ourselves in.
They are not new to their positions, Ouellette has been a trustee for twenty years, all of Schaitberger’s presidency.
Despite having complete access to our financial records they have failed to either detect or report obvious improprieties.
Rosy Reports
The trustees have an obligation to file a report of findings at convention.
In 2018, they said, “our operational budget is strong” despite the fact that just one budget cycle later we needed to dip into reserves for $700,000 to balance it.
They also stated, “I am happy to report that our Auditors have noted no material weaknesses in our financial statements or federal awards report.”
The trustees also weighed in on IAFF pensions, “as you know the IAFF has now accounted for the cost of its defined benefit plans in accordance with the requirements of ERISA.”
This last comment proves they look at pensions yet were somehow unaware that Harold Schaitberger has been collecting one for many years while still working for the IAFF.
By the way, trustee expenses were some $50,000 in the past year meaning their written report was $100 a word, a steep price for garbage and fluff.
See No Evil
For decades, the trustees have played the Schaitberger game of see-no-evil as he plundered the IAFF right in front of them.
The Kelly document, published earlier this year, contains many examples of blatant financial improprieties which they have failed to report or comment on.
How can that be?
Have they not corresponded with IAFF leadership to ask questions about the issues Kelly has raised?
Why have they been silent?
The Feds
As the FBI and other federal agencies nibble at the edges of IAFF corruption, we can but hope that the Department of Labor will look deeper into how Schaitberger and his corrupt cronies have emptied our bank accounts.
Part of that effort should be to hold the trustees accountable for their complete failure to fulfill their responsibility to ensure fiduciary ethics.
With trustees like Ouellette, Mejia and Forrest, we’d be better off having none at all.
The only thing worse would be a Chicago gangster who is a Schaitberger crony.
