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PRESS RELEASE
 August 22, 2002
Contact: Marsha Richards, Communications Director Local WEA president got bonuses from school administration for "resolving faculty issues" PASCO, WA—The Washington Education Association (WEA) and State Attorney General's office have agreed to settle an unfair labor practices complaint after a Columbia Basin Community College (CBC) professor discovered the union's local president was receiving a $4,500 bonus "for work that directly benefits the college in resolving faculty issues." Gary Bullert, a professor of political science at CBC, filed a complaint with the Public Employment Relations Commission after he found the clear conflict of interest in the union's collective bargaining contract. Section 7.4 of the contract reads: "The AHE (Association of Higher Education) President will be granted a 3-step salary increase on an annual, renewable basis, for work that directly benefits the college in resolving faculty issues and grievances before they escalate into conflicts of a more serious nature." "The union president was getting a taxpayer-funded stipend from the college to quell dissension among the faculty members." said Bullert. "This constitutes a conflict of interest which would appear to violate both state and federal law." Bullert and other faculty began investigating the contract after WEA and its local bargaining representative, the Association of Higher Education, made union membership mandatory for new college faculty. The Olympia-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation and Michigan's Mackinac Institute assisted with Bullert's complaint. In July, WEA attorneys and the Assistant Attorney General informed Bullert they would grant his settlement demands, which included excising Section 7.4 from the contract. "This settlement reaffirms the principle that union officials cannot play quid pro quo with school administrators," said Bullert, "The interests of taxpayers, non-union faculty and the general public would be compromised in the process."
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1 Part Honesty; 2 Parts Arrogance At a March 23, 2005, House Appropriations hearing on a bill to gut the voter-approved I-601 spending limit, Rep. Jim McIntire (D) asked a supporter of I-601’s two-third supermajority requirement for the legislature to raise taxes the following question: "Can you name a time when we [legislators] have actually not just set it [supermajority requirement] aside by majority vote? I mean, this is in many respects a procedural motion that has no bearing. It’s a statutory constraint that cannot constrain any legislature that chooses as a majority to set it aside . . . have we ever used a supermajority [to raise taxes]?" - Rep. Jim McIntire (D - 46) Despite the arrogance of some state officials, Washington's constitution is clear: "All political power is inherent in the people..." |
