WHY I DO NOT SUPPORT UFT DE BLASIO ENDORSEMENT

Michael Mulgrew left the chair to praise Mayor Bill de Blasio from the floor at today's Delegate Assembly. Staff Director Leroy Barr took over the chair and butchered democratic procedures during the "debate" on a UFT Bill de Blasio endorsement. Leroy took such a huge hatchet to democratic rules that deomocracy could not be recognized after the DA.

Before Mulgrew left the chair, multiple speakers from his Unity Caucus spoke in favor of the UFT's support for the mayor. Mulgrew had bent the rules to allow anyone who was on the UFT's Mayoral Endorsement Committee to speak. One speaker was then called on to oppose the endorsement and then Mulgrew left the chair to speak in favor of supporting the mayor.

I really wanted to speak because there are legitimate questions that have to be answered before we give de Blasio our support but Barr called on Unity's Greg Lundhul (sorry if I spelled his name wrong). I immediately jumped to my feet to raise a point of order. Barr thought I was complaining because Mulgrew was coming back and looking to be taking over the chair after he debated which is improper but that was only one issue.

The main problem was that after calling on the President, temporary chair Barr had an obligation to call on a speaker against. Instead he called on a Unity person. Caucus obligations require that Unity members support leadership positions in union and public forums so I was totally right in calling for a point of order.

If readers would like chapter and verse, in Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised it says on page 31 in paragraph 3: "In cases where the chair knows that persons seeking the floor have opposite opinions on the question, the chair should let the floor alternate between those favoring and those opposing the measure."

Since I raised my objection immediately, I should have been recognized. Instead, Leroy gave a speech about how the UFT as a courtesy called on a speaker against but they don't have to. I wonder what his definition of debate is.

I immediately objected to the ruling of the chair but Leroy moved on to a vote as if I wasn't even there. According to Roberts Rules on page 256, appeals are taken from the chair and go to the assembly. I never had a chance as they didn't even give me a microphone throughout the entire process. I had to shout. What a disgrace.

Actually I should feel pretty good about the whole fiasco. The reason they were rushing through the non-debate was because the mayor himself was right outside in the hallway probably listening in as there are closed circuit televisions out in the hallway. Leroy Barr and Michael Mulgrew wouldn't permit me to talk against de Blasio while he was in the building. Democracy be damned.

The UFT shut me up. I feel like Elizabeth Warren after she was shut up by Mitch McConell in the US Senate last night. Leroy Barr was afraid to let the Delegates hear my rational argument against the endorsement of Bill de Blasio so he just ignored the rules. I could have gone and made an Earl Weaver-Billy Martin type scene at that point but instead I calmed down and sat back and just voted against the endorsement which not surprisingly overwhelmingly carried. The speech I would have given explaining my vote is below.

In the final analysis, if the UFT is right that our early endorsement will persuade the Mayor to improve teaching and learning conditions, then it might pay off. On the other hand if the Mayor continues to take us for granted because he already has our support, then this is just another dumb UFT political move. Furthermore, if de Blasio is indicted or his close aides are indicted and he is dragged down, we might look like fools and it might help someone from the right move in to clean up the corruption. Once again, as with many other UFT decisions, I hope to be proven wrong. However, the issues I wanted to raise should have been discussed and would have if the DA was a truly deliberative body.

UPDATE-As for the total disregard for democratic procedures, I have concluded after sleeping for a few hours that Leroy Barr's actions were worse than usual but nothing out of the ordinary for UFT leadership. Stifling dissent and throwing rules out the window are par for the course for them. In the end it probably would have been healthy for the mayor to hear what I had to say. Read my remarks and judge for yourself.

 Opposition to UFT Bill de Blasio Endorsement Remarks

February 8, 2017 DA

I rise in opposition to endorsing Mayor Bill de Blasio's reelection bid. The timing is very questionable.

There are two investigations on de Blasio's fundraising taking place right now. Do we really believe a federal prosecutor and a local district attorney are both going to spend all of this time and money looking at the mayor's fundraising and indict nobody close to the mayor or the mayor himself? 

The question I hear in the schools is if it is actually worse now compared to when Bloomberg was mayor. Yes we have a contract but the mayor gave us paltry raises and he had us make an interest free loan to the city that won't be paid back in full until 2020 while the city now has record budget surpluses and reserves. 

The contract terms are insulting enough but what really concerns me is how the mayor and his chancellor have kept the Bloomberg-Klein system at the DOE basically intact. NY1 reported last month that spending on bureaucrats is up a whopping 70% at DOE Central compared to when Bloomberg was in power. Spending is up considerably at the DOE on non personnel costs too. What is this money being spent on? Not the classroom. Most of Bloomberg's people kept their jobs at DOE and new blood has been added. Extra money is certainly not going into the classroom.

As my colleague Marc Epstein said, "de Blasio-Farina cemented Bloomberg-Klein into the DNA of the system." My wife Camille was at a recent arbitration where the UFT did great for her but there were three DOE attorneys on the other side. Two were training. The DOE's anti-teacher army at the Office of Labor Relations continues their work to destroy teachers. De Blasio has done very little, if anything, in three+ years to stop the war on teachers. For that, does he really deserve our early, unqualified support.

I don't favor endorsing a pro-charter Democrat or a Republican but when a mayor and his chancellor show they do not support our members and there is a corruption scandal surrounding that mayor, now might be the time to consider staying neutral. The mayor needs to do something concrete to earn our endorsement.