(VICTOR ALCORN)
He’s got some pair of lungs on him!
Retired FDNY Lt. John McLaughlin has literally run off with a fat, tax-exempted disability pension — despite being known as “Iron Man” in the Long Island hometown where he regularly trains and competes as a triathlete, The Post has learned.
The 55-year-old Long Beach councilman was deemed an asthmatic with diminished lung capacity when the city granted him a three-quarters-pay, $86,000-a-year disability pension two months after 9/11 — earning him the sarcastic moniker “Johnny Lungs” among neighbors.
Despite his pulmonary disability, McLaughlin is a long-distance runner who since his retirement has competed in the New York Marathon, half-marathon races and even grueling triathlons that also include strenuous biking and swimming, sources said.
The “disabled” man places high in local and regional races and frequently wins his age group, running impressive six-minute miles. He’s often seen jogging and biking on the Long Beach boardwalk.
“John is an incredibly fast runner. He runs like the wind,” said one fellow Long Island athlete.
The runner, who requested anonymity because of McLaughlin’s status as a councilman, said his disability pension was beyond the pale. “He has diminished lung capacity? I wish I had diminished lung capacity to run like that.”
Adding insult to injury, McLaughlin ran for the FDNY’s marathon team — after retiring.
The Fire Department newsletter even applauded McLaughlin’s performance that helped the FDNY defeat the NYPD runners in the New York Marathon in 2006, finishing the race in just over 3 hours.
“He [McLaughlin] is a poster child for what’s wrong with the pension system. It’s hard to believe it’s true,” said Carol Kellerman, head of the Citizens Budget Commission.
“Either he had a miraculous recovery or it’s a symbol of a very liberal interpretation of a disability in the Fire Department pension system.”
FDNY medical records show that McLaughlin, a 20-year veteran, was diagnosed with bronchial asthma before 9/11 — and he retired in November 2001.
McLaughlin — who was assigned to then Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen’s office after being placed on light duty following his diagnosis — told The Post he worked at Ground Zero for at least two days.
“His friends call him ‘Johnny Lungs’ because of his disability. Everyone knows it’s a joke,” said one Long Beach insider.
Another longtime Long Beach resident said: “In this little town, he’s the ‘Iron Man.’ ”
Less than a year after retirement, McLaughlin placed second in Hempstead’s 2002 Triathlon.
A Post review found McLaughlin competing in other races including:
* Long Beach’s 10-mile Memorial Day run on May 30.
* The Long Island half-marathon in May of this year and last.
* The Staten Island 5K run in April.
* The July 2008 Massapequa Firecracker 5K run.
* Long Beach’s annual Turkey Trot in 2007, where he finished first.
* Long Beach’s 4-mile Snowflake run in 2008.
Reached last week, McLaughlin defended his pension as legitimate. He read from the FDNY medical and pension board papers that diagnosed him with “bronchial asthma.” Under the so-called lung bill, a condition that results in reduced respiratory function is presumed job-related for pension purposes.
“In the last year on the Fire Department, I started getting shortness of breath. I had an episode where I couldn’t stop coughing,” said McLaughlin, who worked at Ladder 43 in Harlem before his light-duty reassignment.
“I didn’t want to leave the Fire Department. I love the Fire Department. I didn’t have a choice,” said McLaughlin, whose son-in-law is an FDNY firefighter.
McLaughlin said he takes three different medications daily — a steroid spray, a bronchial dilator and a pill to keep his asthma in check. He said he keeps himself in “very, very good shape” and claimed that his vigorous training bolsters his health.
“The better shape I’m in, the less it will impact my life. Does it impact my life? Absolutely. There are times when I think I could do a workout and I can’t,” he said.
FDNY doctors have insisted it’s not their fault that they’re approving lucrative disability pensions that are exempt from state and local income taxes.
They said state laws passed by the labor-friendly state Legislature force them to OK generous disability payouts — even if there’s no conclusive evidence linking the firefighters’ conditions to their jobs.
Additional reporting by Reuven Blau