Early political endorsements, PEF constituency issues tackled at June Exec. Board meeting

By SHERRY HALBROOK and LINDA RUBIN
The PEF Executive Board made several early political endorsements, including Eliot Spitzer for governor, at its meeting held June 8-9 in Albany.

The board amended the PEF Guidelines for Political Contributions to allow contributions to candidates for county executive “in counties where PEF represents non-state employees.”

PEF elections
In election matters closer to home, the board heard a report from the PEF Regular Elections Committee on the progress of PEF’s triennial elections of officers and board members.

Jeff Zaino of the American Arbitration Association explained and demonstrated how ballots in this PEF election would be counted using image scanning technology for the first time.

The board heard an appeal from Dan Steen of a decision by the PEF Ethics Committee on his grievance against Ken Brynien, Arlea Igoe, Pat Baker, Joe Fox, Lou Matrazzo, Julio Munoz, Bob Reynolds and Olubiyi Sehindemi.

The PEF Ethics Committee ruled they did not violate the PEF Ethics Code and dismissed the charges.

The board voted to uphold the decision of the Ethics Committee.

On the recommendation of PEF President Roger Benson, the board adopted a new interim policy to allow any council leader who is involuntarily transferred to a work position in a different steward constituency, but within the same PEF division, to retain their offices of steward and council leader until the ends of their elected terms.

Constituency confusion
The board considered hearing an appeal by Kevin Jones of another decision by the Ethics Committee involving a disagreement over the assignment of a group of members at the state Workers Compensation Board to the constituency of PEF Executive Board Seat 235, rather than to Seat 240.

The board referred the matter back to the Ethics Committee.

The board approved the secession of members at Middletown Psychiatric Center from PEF Division 235 and to a new Division 279.

The board also approved amendments to the Division 399 constitution as recommended by the Divisions Committee.

The Bylaws Committee reported it felt the apportionment of defined constituencies should not change.

The board discussed at length a report by the trustees on PEF’s problems in trying to achieve and maintain the accuracy of its membership and constituency lists.

Trustee Arlea Igoe said that of the 230 PEF divisions, only a few that have members from multiple agencies experience many problems.

Igoe accepted a recommendation that PEF’s quarterly membership lists to council leaders indicate any new members that had been added or dropped, and the names of any people who had submitted PEF membership cards but weren’t on the payroll files from the state.

The board adopted the report and recommendations as amended.

Job security, safety
Benson, who was retiring at the end of July, made his final report to the board on the status of his administration’s priorities of job security, stronger contracts and retirement reform.

He said PEF took on 13 issues in the 2006-07 state budget that threatened members’ job security and was completely successful in nine of them. And he said three of PEF’s four Go Public bills had been enacted so far.

PEF also succeeded in getting the Workplace Violence Prevention law enacted, and was working for other legislation as well.

Later, board member Barbara Rock reported the two winners of the Judi Scanlon Scholarship (named for the slain PEF member) for 2006 are Christopher Miller and Daniel Didas.

Stronger contracts
The board voted to send a tentative agreement between PEF and National Research and Development Inc. (NDRI) on a new contract for members of the AIDS Outreach Program unit at NDRI to those members for ratification.

PEF finances
Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum reported on the expenses of the union and stated PEF was still developing a request for proposals for banking services. And she said the annual PEF audit would begin the following week.

The board adopted a recommendation to restrict the investment of division funds to bank interest-bearing accounts, certificates of deposit and other federally guaranteed securities.

The board tabled a motion to prohibit divisions from retaining funds in excess of one year’s allotment.

The board approved a report on the funding of PEF labor-management committees which approved funding for the 2006-07 fiscal year.

Vice President and Convention Committee Chair Joe Fox reported the Sheraton New York and Towers Hotel in New York City has agreed to a $50,000 cap on its master bill for the PEF 2007 convention.