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Berousek earns an estimated $73,000 tax-free in Wisconsin
Posted: July 25, 2010 |(135) Comments
North Shore Fire Chief David Berousek announced earlier this year that he was leaving his post and applying for duty disability because of a heart attack that he suffered last year.
In February, the state approved Berousek's application for disability pay, clearing the way for him to stay home while earning an estimated $73,000 in tax-free income a year because it was determined that he had suffered a work-related injury.
But the 54-year-old veteran administrator is not staying home.
Berousek is working for a consulting firm that conducted a study of Berousek's agency a few years back.
In that role, he is now back where he started - as chief for a fire department.
Only now he is doing this on a temporary basis for six communities just outside Houston.
"Welcome Interim Fire Chief Dave Berousek," says the Hedwig Village, Texas, website. "Chief Berousek was installed as the Interim Chief on Monday, June 21, 2010."
Under the arrangement, the Village Fire Department in Texas is paying Illinois-based McGrath Consulting Group $8,500 a month for Berousek to serve as interim chief and to help conduct a performance audit of the 50-person agency. The firm is overseeing the search for a new chief.
No Quarter was alerted to Berousek's arrangement in response to a recent column on the duty disability case of former Milwaukee cop Dave Orlowski. The ex-officer is paid more than $50,000 in tax-free income a year because he is considered "permanently and totally incapacitated for duty," yet the 54-year-old has now completed 10 triathlons in the past 1½ years.
Berousek, who lives in Cedarburg, said he doesn't expect his new job to last but for a few months - until a permanent chief is selected. News stories have estimated that this will occur in September or October. He said he doesn't want the permanent post.
Reached at his new fire department, Berousek said he was uniquely qualified for this short-term assignment because he helped oversee the North Shore Fire Department, which provides service to seven suburban communities just north of Milwaukee. He ran the department from its inception in 1995 to earlier this year.
He declined to say how much of the $8,500 monthly retainer he gets to keep.
"That's my business," said Berousek, who worked as a firefighter and administrator in Wisconsin for 20 years. "I'm no longer a public employee."
As for working full time just months after being declared disabled by the state, Berousek emphasized that he is in a low-stress job. He said Wisconsin law presumes that heart attacks are job-related in duty disability cases.
In his current post, he said, he is mainly reviewing and analyzing records and working at his desk. He is not making runs to fires or accident scenes, as was sometimes required in his North Shore job. His main task, he noted, is finishing an audit of the consolidated fire department and recommending improved management techniques.
"I wasn't going to put my health in jeopardy, nor am I trying to scam the system," Berousek said. "You know, I'm living."
To emphasize his point, he said he plans to tell the state all about this extra income at the end of the year. He also said he believes his disability pay will be offset, dollar for dollar, by any money he earns from the consulting firm.
Not quite.
Matt Stohr, spokesman for the state Department of Employee Trust Funds, said there is a complicated formula that reduces a disabled person's monthly payments by a fraction of their outside income. The offset increases from a third of outside earnings up to two-thirds of those funds, depending on how much a person earns while on duty disability.
According to the formula, for instance, Berousek's disability payments would be reduced by about $18,000 a year if he pulls in $50,000 from the consulting company this year. That would put his combined annual income at $105,000.
That's only about $7,000 more a year than what he made at the North Shore Fire Department, said Robert Whitaker, the current chief. The big difference is half of his current pay would not be taxable.
In addition, Stohr said, state rules require those on duty disability to report to the state within 30 days of receiving any outside pay, something that Berousek hasn't done. Just to make sure all outside income is reported, the state also requires disabled workers to provide all W-2 tax forms at the end of the year.
"It does happen where it's not reported in that 30 days," Stohr said.
Berousek said he was familiar with the consulting company because it is run by Tim McGrath, a retired Brookfield Fire Department chief. Berousek said he has been working for the firm for about a year.
McGrath conducted an analysis of the North Shore Fire Department in 2005, 10 years after it merged the seven previously separate departments. Whitaker, the current chief, said he couldn't immediately say how much the firm was paid, and Berousek said he was not responsible for the contract.
Asked if he plans to stay with the consulting company once his stint in Texas is completed, Berousek said, "Should there be something of interest, I will."
He emphasized that he had no interest in running another fire department, even though he was a finalist to head the Bothell Fire Department in Washington last fall, several months after his heart attack and before his retirement.
Posted: July 25, 2010 |(135) Comments
North Shore Fire Chief David Berousek announced earlier this year that he was leaving his post and applying for duty disability because of a heart attack that he suffered last year.
In February, the state approved Berousek's application for disability pay, clearing the way for him to stay home while earning an estimated $73,000 in tax-free income a year because it was determined that he had suffered a work-related injury.
But the 54-year-old veteran administrator is not staying home.
Berousek is working for a consulting firm that conducted a study of Berousek's agency a few years back.
In that role, he is now back where he started - as chief for a fire department.
Only now he is doing this on a temporary basis for six communities just outside Houston.
"Welcome Interim Fire Chief Dave Berousek," says the Hedwig Village, Texas, website. "Chief Berousek was installed as the Interim Chief on Monday, June 21, 2010."
Under the arrangement, the Village Fire Department in Texas is paying Illinois-based McGrath Consulting Group $8,500 a month for Berousek to serve as interim chief and to help conduct a performance audit of the 50-person agency. The firm is overseeing the search for a new chief.
No Quarter was alerted to Berousek's arrangement in response to a recent column on the duty disability case of former Milwaukee cop Dave Orlowski. The ex-officer is paid more than $50,000 in tax-free income a year because he is considered "permanently and totally incapacitated for duty," yet the 54-year-old has now completed 10 triathlons in the past 1½ years.
Berousek, who lives in Cedarburg, said he doesn't expect his new job to last but for a few months - until a permanent chief is selected. News stories have estimated that this will occur in September or October. He said he doesn't want the permanent post.
Reached at his new fire department, Berousek said he was uniquely qualified for this short-term assignment because he helped oversee the North Shore Fire Department, which provides service to seven suburban communities just north of Milwaukee. He ran the department from its inception in 1995 to earlier this year.
He declined to say how much of the $8,500 monthly retainer he gets to keep.
"That's my business," said Berousek, who worked as a firefighter and administrator in Wisconsin for 20 years. "I'm no longer a public employee."
As for working full time just months after being declared disabled by the state, Berousek emphasized that he is in a low-stress job. He said Wisconsin law presumes that heart attacks are job-related in duty disability cases.
In his current post, he said, he is mainly reviewing and analyzing records and working at his desk. He is not making runs to fires or accident scenes, as was sometimes required in his North Shore job. His main task, he noted, is finishing an audit of the consolidated fire department and recommending improved management techniques.
"I wasn't going to put my health in jeopardy, nor am I trying to scam the system," Berousek said. "You know, I'm living."
To emphasize his point, he said he plans to tell the state all about this extra income at the end of the year. He also said he believes his disability pay will be offset, dollar for dollar, by any money he earns from the consulting firm.
Not quite.
Matt Stohr, spokesman for the state Department of Employee Trust Funds, said there is a complicated formula that reduces a disabled person's monthly payments by a fraction of their outside income. The offset increases from a third of outside earnings up to two-thirds of those funds, depending on how much a person earns while on duty disability.
According to the formula, for instance, Berousek's disability payments would be reduced by about $18,000 a year if he pulls in $50,000 from the consulting company this year. That would put his combined annual income at $105,000.
That's only about $7,000 more a year than what he made at the North Shore Fire Department, said Robert Whitaker, the current chief. The big difference is half of his current pay would not be taxable.
In addition, Stohr said, state rules require those on duty disability to report to the state within 30 days of receiving any outside pay, something that Berousek hasn't done. Just to make sure all outside income is reported, the state also requires disabled workers to provide all W-2 tax forms at the end of the year.
"It does happen where it's not reported in that 30 days," Stohr said.
Berousek said he was familiar with the consulting company because it is run by Tim McGrath, a retired Brookfield Fire Department chief. Berousek said he has been working for the firm for about a year.
McGrath conducted an analysis of the North Shore Fire Department in 2005, 10 years after it merged the seven previously separate departments. Whitaker, the current chief, said he couldn't immediately say how much the firm was paid, and Berousek said he was not responsible for the contract.
Asked if he plans to stay with the consulting company once his stint in Texas is completed, Berousek said, "Should there be something of interest, I will."
He emphasized that he had no interest in running another fire department, even though he was a finalist to head the Bothell Fire Department in Washington last fall, several months after his heart attack and before his retirement.
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