Who says there are no second acts in American lives? FDNY pensioner Cliff Stabner retired as a “disabled” city smoke eater in 2003 and — presto chango — is now working as an emergency responder . . . at a NASCAR speedway in Delaware.
As The Post’s Carl Campanile reports, the 55-year-old Stabner took a three-quarters-pay disability pension of $95,000 when he retired in 2003 — all of it free of city and state taxes, and funded from New Yorkers’ wallets.
But the lung-related issues that seemingly assailed him back then aren’t keeping him from working on the fire-rescue team at Dover International Speedway, where he responds to car crashes — or from being a fire captain in his new home in Lewes, Del.
Stabner’s not alone: The Post has uncovered other scammers, like retired FDNY Lt. John McLaughlin (a k a “Johnny Lungs”), who got an $86,000 disability pension for bronchial ailments — and now runs marathons and competes in triathlons.
It’s all too easy to pull off.
Firefighters merely need the go-ahead from some friendly doctors to cash in on disability — legit or not — as nearly 90% of them have done in recent years.
Stabner told The Post he has “serious medical issues,” but declined to name one.
Well, nothing so serious as to prevent him from scrambling over the asphalt when stock cars crack up on his speedway.
Which means the city gets the worst of both worlds from this guy: First he’s too breathless to fight fires for New York and picks up a boosted pension — but then he’s a picture of health, happy to work hard now that he’s off New York’s ladders.
Overall, the cost to the city is enormous: The FDNY pension fund paid out more than a half-billion in disability pensions last year, and there’s no way of knowing how many of them were proper.
Or, more to the point, bogus.
So it’s vital that the FDNY take a second look at retirees like Stabner.
Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano touted a plan last year to call firefighters with questionable “disabilities” before a pension-review board to see if their ailments actually exist.
But the FDNY only reviewed two egregious cases, both uncovered by The Post — and neither pension was revoked. What’s more, state law forbids the FDNY from even investigating any retiree with 20 years or more on the job.
Which means neither Stabner nor Johnny Lungs will ever be called to account.
And so it goes: Pension arsonists strike . . . and no one lifts a finger to stop them.