KEVIN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31
you have to have a base of knowledge and be smarter than you
adversary.”
Now you see him
Anybody who has been to a PBA event, whether it’s a Local
beefsteak, cigar night, comedy night, retirement dinner, state
meeting, convention or Collective Bargaining Seminar knows
Kevin Lyons can usually be found cornered by members or
sitting at a table with them. Sometimes, he’s telling stories because he is one of the all-time great PBA story-tellers, but more
often than not he is answering questions.
The questions come at Lyons from all sides, from all across
the state PBA and seemingly at all times of the day, except maybe between 2 and 4 a.m., when he reportedly does get in some
sleep. Make no mistake, he loves the questions and lives for the
answers.
“He’s put on the spot for so many types of questions, so he’s
got to be ready because everybody is always asking him something,” appraised Ed Weimmer, the PBA Retired Local 600 Associate State Delegate who goes back with Lyons to their days
with the Ocean County Conference in the 1990s. “It may be a
question they are asking to get some immediate information
or for something down the road, but he turns on that computer
inside his head and pulls out the information.”
Around PBA headquarters, where has worked since 2008 in
dual roles as Health Benefits Coordinator and Legal Protection
Plan Coordinator, he is sometimes called the answer man. Well,
he’s not really called that; more like the man with the answers.
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NEW JERSEY COPS
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“Honestly, Kevin is one of the smartest men I have ever met,”
Kovar confides. “Sometimes, I tell him, ‘I can’t believe you’re a
cop. You shouldn’t have been a cop. You should have been an
attorney or a Wall Street executive.’ I will ask Kevin about any
subject and if he doesn’t have the answer, he knows who to call
in three seconds.”
There are other titles and phrases PBA members throw
around to describe Lyons. Some aren’t fit to print. (OK, just kidding.) Others include “inquisitive,” “concerned,” “loyal” and
“dynamic.” Kovar characterizes Lyons as the guy who seems
like he has been there for 60 years, but is “really a young guy
with a lot of energy.”
Doesn’t that seem like what the job description for Retired
Members Representative to the PFRS Trustee Board should include? It’s not somebody who says he can get your COLA back,
but doesn’t realize that can’t be done without having any insight
to the PBA’s plan to create an independent pension system that
isn’t run by the state.
The Retired Members Trustee also needs to have expertise
in health benefits. Before he ever started studying plan documents, Lyons gained an affinity for the nuances of healthcare
growing up working in his father’s pharmacy.
And the Retired Members Trustee should also have the
knowledge and the wisdom to represent current retirees as well
as make decisions that will help active members when they end
their careers.
To confirm his affinity to meet these requisites, let’s go
straight to the top. President Colligan had the opportunity to
serve alongside Lyons when he worked in the state office as