Edzo's Big Lie
Edzo likes to say in his town halls and pitches to locals that “3 years in, issues emerged” and he had to speak up.
Yes, 3 years into his term an election was coming up, and he wanted to be GP really bad.
So he had his personal anti-union lawyer (Nelson Mullins) trump up “issues” that are things he handed/leaked to anti-union media outlets that blame other people (always his go to – blame others), blaming either President Schaitberger or previous GSTs or past and the current Executive Board for what he has called crimes, fraud and misappropriation.
It’s a disgusting failure of his that his first and last instinct is to serve himself and sacrifice others and the union. His personal political ambition always comes before the truth, the reputation of the IAFF, and the reputation and legacies of all of the leaders who came before him who he has trashed with his bullshit accusations. The only truth he exposed is he, Mission Edzo, comes before everything else.
Know what is the only truth to what he has accused others of? The answer: NONE of what he raised has held water.
What was he successful in doing? Smearing the good name of the IAFF for his own benefit. Yes he was successful at hurting the union. But that’s not how a true union leader acts.
He was successful in getting the feds to investigate his own union. Yes, his lies, because they were coming from an elected official, have to be the reason the feds are investigating.
Let’s elect someone who cares more about Mission IAFF than Mission Kelly.
What are the feds finding? You’d have to ask the Board or the feds to find out. Importantly though is that Edzo said to many leaders for the past year and a half (probably as long as he’s been selling his lies to the feds) that “Harold will be led out in handcuffs”. We'll see if that's correct soon when we start our convention and Harold is there at the podium, leading it in handcuffs, or not.
The reports we have gotten from the Executive Board are that Edzo’s lies have cost our members over $2 million in legal fees so far. Members money wasted in the name of Edzo's personal ambition and to the detriment of the IAFF.
Last example for this blog is a story that apparently a DVP has told to many people and one of those people sent it to us via our confidential link.
The story is that just one year into his term, Edzo was at the AFL-CIO Convention with the IAFF delegation. He got drunk and then got truthful. He broke down crying, sobbing that it wasn’t fair that he was just GST, THAT HE SHOULD BE GP NOW. He thought Schaitberger should step down so he could assume the throne BECAUSE HE DESERVED IT, IT WAS HIS.
That’s the truth. His campaign of personal destruction, of tearing down our union and claiming he was the messiah who is the only one who can rebuild it was years in the making.
This campaign is about Edzo, and the things he does as a leader will always be about Edzo. Period. He couldn't wait for the spot so he tore down everything in his way hoping not to be called out for his lies.
He's being called out.