On Wednesday night, the Representative Council of TALB voted by a slim majority to refer the proposed bylaws back to the original bylaws committee that was in place when Tony Diaz was President of the union. The membership of the committee is important because after Michael Day became President, several members from the bylaws committee were replaced.
At what appears to be a rather contentious meeting, supporters of the bylaws revisions that would grant more power to President Day and dilute power and authority from the Board of Directors, attempted to hold an additional meeting on the bylaws that would be open to the entire membership to attend and vote.
I believe this procedural move was attempted in part because it was evident that those in favor of the bylaws revisions did not have a majority. Day’s supporters intended to pack the house with supporters of the bylaws and out-vote the committee.
Luckily, the committee meeting went forward, and a motion to refer the bylaws revisions back to committee was passed. The committee will now review the bylaws and suggested revisions and will report to the Representative Council in January.
One final note on this issue – for now anyway. On Tuesday, the lbpost.com published a story titled TALB: New Legal Opinion From Cal Teachers Assoc. The post included a link to a legal opinion found on TALB’s website. The website link reads: CTA Group Legal Services Attorney Analysis of Proposed TALB Bylaws.
Inferred in the title of the link at TALB.org is that the opinion letter from Ms. Leheny is that of the CTA. It is not. I have the Memorandum from California Teachers Association Chief Counsel Beverly Tucker dated September 11, 2007 and addressed to Robin Rose the Assistant Executive Director. The memo substantially backs the opinion letter I put on My Front Porch on September 21st from Margaret Morrow.
The letter referenced on the TALB website is not from the CTA’s legal council as would be implied by their communications, rather the “CTA Group Legal Services Attorney” who provided the legal opinion is the same firm hired in 2003 by TALB Executive Director Scott McVarish and current Long Beach Unified School Board Member Michael Ellis. Ellis needed an attorney as he was facing discipline for drinking while chaperoning students on a Model United Nations trip while employed at Hawthorne High School. (Article from Press-Telegram here).
Why would TALB feel the need to try to deceive the teachers and the public about legal representation? It did not take much effort to connect the dots to see that the legal opinion they disguised as the CTA’s was from a law firm previously used by McVarish. Are they assuming their members are gullible and will believe what they show/tell them?
The good news, for now, is a majority of the Representative Council of TALB has seen through the attempts by McVarish and Day to take complete control of the teacher’s union and their dues. There are more skirmishes to come as a majority of the board members are still waiting for requested financial documents and have a lawsuit filed for compliance with their request. Stay tuned.
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