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NEW JERSEY COPS ■ DECEMBER 2014
2014 Valor Awards – Executive Member of the Year
Unsung
hero
Andy Haase
always gets
the job done
State PBA 4th Vice-President
Walter “Andy” Haase
For nearly two decades, Walter “Andy” Haase has been serving PBA members as State Delegate of Teaneck Local 215 and
has worked his way up the State Executive Board ladder from
sergeant-at-arms to trustee to his current position as Fourth
Vice-President. So when State President Pat Colligan was considering nominations for Executive Board Member of the Year,
he saw only the place Haase hasn’t been in service to the PBA.
“When we looked at the plaque to see who has been named
Executive Board Member of the year, I was shocked that he wasn’t picked earlier,” Colligan questioned. “I’m glad that we were
able to discover (this) because he’s been on the E-board a long
time and he’s always there. Andy is the big quiet guy that does a
lot that nobody notices. He’s a workhorse that I think people over
time have overlooked because he’s been there for so long.”
Well, no longer. Haase is finally getting the recognition he
deserves; though it may not be the recognition he craves.
“I don’t do things for the pat on the back; I do it because it has
to get done. That’s me,” Haase attested. “Their selection of me
out of the blue was a surprise.”
Anybody who has ever worked with Haase knows – and what
those who Haase has silently helped should know – this honor
is far from out of the blue. It’s an overdue testament to the man
on the phones with politicians; the Survivor & Welfare Board of
Trustees member working to distribute money; and the coordinator of the PBA Special Service Unit who can be found picking up the PBA trailer at 5 a.m. while everyone is sleeping and
sweeping it out long after everybody is gone.
“He rarely misses a meeting,” Colligan added.
“He always walks around with a smile on his face
and is always happy to help and offer assistance.”
Early in his career that began as an officer
with Teaneck in January 1982, the PBA helped
Haase navigate a dispute, and ever since, he has
2014
Valor
awards
appreciated what it means to be a union man.
“The union is about protecting the labor rights of our members, but the main thing is helping our brothers out in times of
need,” he emphasized . “It’s like a family.”
In 1995, Haase became the State Delegate for Teaneck Local
215, eventually getting an opportunity to join the executive
board of the Bergen County Conference. After a couple of years,
then-State PBA President Michael Madonna appointed Haase
to the state executive board as a sergeant-at-arms. Since then,
he quietly “bumped up the ranks” – as he calls it – to his current
role. And at each position, year after year, Haase remembers
what drives him:
“Whether legal attention or just good and welfare, I’ve always
just wanted to help out and fulfill the needs of the group,” he
said, recalling a particularly tough year for the morale of New Jersey’s cops. “We attended two police funerals days apart from
each other – in Jersey City (for Officer Melvin Santiago) and
Waldwick (for Officer Christopher Goodell).”
At each of these, Haase did his part at the PBA trailer distributing coffee, water and food to the thousands of mourners.
“It’s a comfort to the cops that are there,” he explained. “A
funeral is a very large function. Especially if a cop has been murdered, you get thousands and thousands of people. But if somebody needs something, it’s a phone call and we do what we gotta
do.”
And it’s that message of “doing what we gotta do” that best
summarizes Haase’s advice for his fellow E-Board members
(“We’re there to aid and assist the President and Executive Vice
President,” he vowed), and for the greater membership.
“We work together as a team to get the job done,” Haase continued. “It’s not one guy – it’s numerous guys. Everybody chips in.
Listen to your E-Boards and delegates and presidents and let’s get
everything accomplished that we want to get accomplished.”d