$570k pension for city lifeguard is just tip of – Latest News
Peter Stein, the so-called “Boss of the Beach,” now gathering a $570,000 pension after careers with the Department of Education and Parks Department, is just the poster boy for corrupt abuse of New York public-employees advantages — and union leaders’ full lack of disgrace at these absurdities is damning.
And that it’s (largely) utterly legal doesn’t make it any much less corrupt.
Stein labored as a full-time center faculty gymnasium trainer and (since lecturers get summers off) as chief lifeguard, crucially additionally wielding energy as a United Federation of Teachers chapter chief and the iron-fisted boss of the lifeguard supervisors’ union, an affiliate of District Council 37.
He left the job amid a Department of Investigation probe over allegations of mismanagement, retaliation, and inaction on sexual harassment — getting out in time to securely rating that absurd payout.
He’s one of 62 new retirees who scored pensions of at the very least $200,000 final yr, per knowledge on the Empire Center’s SeeThroughNY web site; 490 received six-figure payouts.
And the entire pension payout to retired city staff was about $6.2 billion — together with more than $52.7 million in “back pay.”
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The core system is not an outrage: Most “full career” city retirees obtain modest payouts — averaging $62,582 final yr.
But bigwigs and insiders exploit the principles to win obscene retirement quantities, notes the Empire Center’s Abdullah Ar Rafee: “Between overtime spiking and legacy benefit rules, New York’s pension design rewards benefit padding at the explicit expense of the public.”
And the corruption is growing worse: The quantity of six-figure retirees has doubled from about 1,600 in 2020 to three,200 in 2025.
Meanwhile the entire pensioner population grew 7%, from 150,563 to 160,982 in 2025, whereas complete payouts jumped 24%, more than thrice as fast.
You’ll by no means hear the leaders of the UFT, DC 27 or every other municipal union (together with the police and fire ones) specific outrage at these abuses, not to mention offer to cooperate in reforms that would finish them.
Which means they don’t actually care in regards to the corruption . . . or they’re a half of it.
