Exclusive | NYC lifeguard Boss of the Beach scores $570K pension on taxpayers tab: report

Life’s a beach — when taxpayers pick up the tab.A controversial former Big Apple chief city lifeguard nicknamed “Boss of the Beach” raked in a staggering $570,419 pension last year, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy.Ex chief lifeguard and union boss Peter Stein’s taxpayer-funded golden parachute comes after a longtime dual career where he also served full-time as a middle school gym teacher In Brooklyn — calling it quits while under investigation by the city Department of Investigation.Stein, 81, held two full-time city jobs for three decades and he was probed by the Board of Education for the unusual but legal arrangement — with investigators digging in to see if he was shirking his responsibilities.Nothing came of the investigation.The city’s alleged David Hustle-hoff started patrolling beaches more than 60 years ago, and for more than 40 years was president of the lifeguard supervisors’ union, Local 508 of District Council 37.He was called the “boss of the beach” and accused of controlling not just his union, but the separate lifeguard union, Local 461.Stein retired as a school teacher in 2004 after 32 years, pulling in $77,974 the year before he retired, records showed.He had also led the teachers union chapter at his school for many years.But Stein kept working as chief lifeguard for two more decades with his tenure marked by a series of accusations of mismanagement, including claims of failing to take action sexual harassment claims and retaliation.Stein ended up as the center of a 2020 New York Magazine profile that compared “The Boss of the Beach” to Boss Tweed and said he relied on “a playbook of patronage, power brokering, and intimidation.”In 2021, he refused to be questioned about “systemic problems” plaguing the city’s lifeguard program, the Department of Investigation said.How exactly Stein got up to $570,000 last year in retirement pay last year is unclear.His regular gross pay topped out at $121,000...