August Executive Board report
Eleven named to PEF Triennial Elections Committee


By LINDA RUBIN and SHERRY HALBROOK
At its August 2005 meeting, the PEF Executive Board approved the appointment of members to a Triennial Elections Committee to oversee the 2006 elections for all statewide and regional PEF offices and all seats on the Executive Board.

The committee members are: Ed Patten, Rosemary Rossi-Williams, Mary lou Vasilev, Paul Gendron, Robert Darrow, Edward Snow, Robert Harms, Edith Cooper, Wendy Phillips, Mark Seidner and Bridget Pawelczak.

Five new members of the board — Gracy James, Richard Keller, Gail Rice, Darryl Stevenson and Juana Williams — were sworn in and seated at the meeting. They were elected to fill vacancies and serve the remainder of the three-year terms that expire in July 2006.

A motion was adopted to appropriate $100,000 from PEF’s contingency fund to help pay for PEF’s campaign to keep the state Labor Department’s call center in Manhattan open.

A new policy on member joining dates was proposed by PEF Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum and was adopted by the board. 

A new timetable was adopted for PEF internal legal appeals, divisions appeals and ethics appeals, and the board voted to amend the PEF Code of Ethics.

The Executive Board heard the five charges regarding Ethics Case 2004-11 and two of the charges were overturned and dismissed. The board ruled the appellant, Susan Jeffords, could reapply for PEF membership immediately, but would be barred permanently from holding any office in PEF — appointed or elected. 

A new PEF Division 406 was established at the state Department of Taxation and Finance based on what was formerly Division 290A.

The board adopted an amendment to PEF Division 373’s constitution and bylaws and it approved the annexation of members at the state Office of General Services Cyber Security unit to Division 179. 

PEF President Roger Benson reported on his priorities of job security, stronger contracts, retirement reform and reported on PEF’s organizing effort in Rensselaer County and the status of the Division of Parole fragmentation petition to the state Public Employment Relations Board.

Benson also agreed to have a further study made of the state’s denial of PEF’s shared services proposal regarding staffing at the state School for the Blind’s intensive care facility.

PEF Vice President Joe Fox, Region 5 Coordinator Mary Twitchell and Executive Board member Mike Keenan, who were delegates to the historic 2005 AFL-CIO Convention in Chicago, reported on the convention and the decision of some international unions to leave the AFL-CIO and form Change to Win.

Board members received a report on PEF’s Go Public legislative campaign and other PEF state legislative goals for the 2005 session.

The board approved sending PEF’s proposed federal and state legislative agendas for 2006 to the union’s convention delegates in September for adoption.

The board also endorsed political candidate Mark Alesi in the November special election to fill the unexpired term in state Assembly District 1. The board decided not to make an 
endorsement at that time in the New York city mayoral race.

The Communicator February 2006

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August Executive Board report

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