Today’s TRSNYC election – a detail

I think everyone is focused on Tom Brown, supported by Unity, endorsed by the UFT, being challenged by David Kazansky, supported by ABC. Frank Panebianco is also running.

Personal note. I know all three. Tom has been friendly, although I was displeased with how he ate up time at an RTC meeting. David is a nice guy, and has always been helpful. He sometimes offered useful advice. And just a few years ago he heard that I’d had a concern with the help I’d gotten from the Pension Department – and he personally called me to look into it (turned out, Pension was good. It was another department that was not on top of its game.) And Frank used to come to my school when I was chapter leader. That’s a story.

I brought in a pension speaker almost every year to HSAS, my school. For years I chose my favorite Bronx consultant. I’ll call him Jeff. Because that’s his name. And members really liked him. One year Jeff wasn’t available. They sent me a guy named Frank with a long Italian last name. I am not certain – I may have been absent the day of the meeting. But later that week a couple of people spoke to me. He was great. I asked the school secretary, who knew and liked Jeff, what had happened. She sold me: Now I loved Jeff (and did initial consultations with him, by choice) – but it turned out that I already knew a lot, and Jeff got to the trickier stuff quickly. Frank did not. He assumed that there were people who did not know anything. And he went slowly. Many of my members needed more basic explanations. The school secretary said that Frank Panebianco reached everyone – and that I had to bring him back. And I did, every year after that.

Back to today’s election. One of the ABC leaders wrote that only ABC endorsed Kazansky. Which is true. And then laced into the irrelevance of the “legacy caucuses.” Not true. David did not ask for Retiree Advocate’s endorsement. He did not ask for MORE’s endorsement (although he did a presentation where he attempted to recruit individual MORE members). He called several New Action folks and asked for their help, but did not ask for NAC’s endorsement. It seems that David Kazansky is ABC’s candidate by design.

Why are Retirees Excluded?

Now, given a reasonable choice, I would probably not support a Unity candidate. I would likely have trouble with an ABC candidate. But I do not have a choice at all – retirees don’t vote. That’s wrong. Unfair. We are part of TRSNYC. We contributed for years. We should have a say in how it is run. I hope we can begin to address this.

The Story that Got Missed

Last summer, after the election, Unity (or were they the union officers, acting on behalf of the UFT, not of a caucus? I think they were acting as Unity) fired a handful of people. People who had openly opposed them, run against them – not really fair – but not surprising either.

But whoever engineered this purge went further – they fired people who were friends with ABC, but who had not run against them – and in one case, Hector Ruiz, who had run with Unity against his friends. And David was fired from his job. This was a warning shot – do not even look disloyal, or you will pay. It was heavy-handed. It is overreaction based in fear, and in insecurity. Whoever did this, one day they should be held to account. Going after friends and family of your opponents should be out of bounds.

And it failed. Frank Panebianco was a Unity loyalist. And despite the purge, he stood up to them. Whoever organized the purge – that person is a disgrace. And a failure. And Frank Panebianco is the evidence.

Longshot, but a good guy

Frank doesn’t have much of a shot. Maybe he should. Math degree, business background. Qualified (honestly, anyone can be trained to be a trustee. It doesn’t take special background. Tom was a Spanish teacher. David is an Art teacher.)

He thought he was next in line, for a long time. He was passed over repeatedly. Eventually he said no, enough. He had been a pension consultant. He quit. He went back to the classroom. Voluntarily.

Back to the Classroom

He went back to the classroom voluntarily. That doesn’t happen. Not with Unity folks. If they have another option, they take it. When Michael Shulman defeated George Altomare, George turned in his papers the next day. Was not going back to the classroom. When Amy was fired, she retired rather than teach. David went back because he had no choice. When Unity has “fired” full-timers, they don’t fire them, they move them. In my years of experience, I knew of only one Unity full-timer who voluntarily returned to the classroom (a DR in Brooklyn). Had a lot of respect for that. And now Frank makes two,

Like I wrote, I don’t expect Frank to win. And in the end, I don’t know how much, if any, difference a TRS Trustee will have. But the fact that after the purge Frank still chose to run – that should scare Unity.