Stop the Presses. There’s been a formal challenge issued to the latest SAEA Elections. Doh!
For anyone following the Santa Ana Educator’s Association (aka-SAEA, aka-teacher’s union) local election, you already know that one half of the two-part election was thrown out because of gross procedural errors. The State Representative election portion was declared null a couple of weeks ago. In a set of posts, Orange Juice and readers debated the merits of a jammed down election full of confusing communications, missing information, stonewalled silence, personal attacks and of course, gross and apparent procedural errors by the Powers that Be who had been conducting the board elections for the teacher’s union. If you missed it,
the discussions can be found here: SAEA Santa Ana Teacher’s Union Election Jam Down
and here: SAEA Corrupt Elections: Vote Early, Vote Often!
and here: Who should be the next Santa Ana Educators’ Association President?
The discussions got crazy and in the end, Orange Juice! readers found out who the election winners were DAYS BEFORE the site reps were finally informed. During the elections and discussions it was also learned that union insiders Jennifer Isensee and Scott Miller are operating personal side jobs using SAEA phone and address numbers for their “Anger Management” services. Despite the shoddy union practices, it was no surprise around here, that the jam-down produced the winners who were unfairly promoted by district-paid union employee and supposed Grievance Chair, Jennifer Isensee. Sure, half of this election would have to be run again, but the union insiders club was thrilled. It was so easy. This win was so important. “Woo Hoo! It’s in the bag now! We WON! Par-tay! People”.
The damn thing was run like some kind of popularity contest. It was never a forum about critical issues facing SAEA general membership interests. But……
Not so fast! The head elections official, Maureen Doughterty, let it be known in this freshly-released notice to the SAEA Elections Committee that there has been a challenge issued against the current election results based on -(no big surprise here!)- PROCEDURAL ERRORS. Who else is SHOCKED? JUST SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!
We all KNOW how much the union hates communicating with members, so it is especially sweet to get a copy of something that they don’t want just the regular teachers to know about. Elections note from Maureen from 9 pm last night:
Good Evening Everyone.OK, Only 12 more days. There was a challenge on procedures. There were a few of us who met which is fine. We wrote a response and will submit it to the SAEA BOD. They will rule on it, and that should be the end of it. I know it is busy this time of year.I would like to meet over the summer to discuss the coming year of elections and look over the bylaws and standing rules. I’m thinking August like the week of the 10th or 17th. No need to respond now. Just think about it, but not too much. Let’s get through the end of the year. Have a good modified day. Maureen
“That should be the end of it”. The end of what? Apparently there was no notice sent out to the committee as a whole about the elections challenge, so we can only assume that a select group of insiders drew up the response. And of course, in the absence of any discussions, it is expected that the SAEA BOD will quash the elections challenge, too. These are just formalities for this club of insiders.
You teachers get to pay a thousand bucks a year for these kinds of junior high school level antics. It probably wouldn’t matter much in years past, but these very same people who don’t seem to grasp how to communicate effectively and who don’t seem to understand how even very basic procedures operate, are in charge of negotiations that have landed so many of you teachers out of your jobs going forward. You gotta come to the OJ to get a clue, don’t you? Sad.
Oh, and the half-assed “Rally” those clowns have planned for you? What’s that all about, anyways? What exactly is the message going to be? Don’t look at the union website, because you won’t find answers THERE.
Learn this lesson: Don’t expect people to empower you. You have to take back your own power, every single day.
I am so glad to hear some information about the SAEA elections. Lack of ethics and great ability to break bylaws, is a symptom of people that will sell their souls, if they want to continue holding the power. You are so right, We must take back our own power every day.
But, if the elections were lacking of transparency, and there were many procedural errors, the whole election must be repeated. It will take time, so they should hold the elections back again in August or September.
How was the MInority at Large position? who won? how many votes? Is there anyone there with information about it?
Hey Michelle Quinn,
did you know at the last saea rep council that they had a very special “guests” section put up? Maybe they thought you would show up!
Keep them on their toes and keep it real!
This is great news! The SAEA “leaders” are a sorry lot. They screwed half their members with a bad benefits deal this year – and last year they endorsed the corrupt SAUSD Trustees Rob Richardson and Jose Hernandez.
I hope the election results get tossed out!!!
Yep, for once I agree with Art. The only problem is that SAEA is affiliated with CTA who is associated with ACORN. Crooked politics, voter intimidation, and misappropriation of funds is the norm. Why else would SAEA allow several of its board members use the office (paid for by the union teachers)to run their own business (Anger management)for profit? Why else was the SAUSD thread here flooded with union hacks until the election was over? It would greatly surprise me if the election was actually overturned no matter what the complaint. But stranger things have happened.
SAEA is just as corrupt as SAUSD. And their antics of muddying up schoool site elections should be closely examined. Bylaws? They either plead ignorance or ignore them. It’s shameful how school site councils are run in this district. And it’s taxpayers dollars they are messing with.
to #4
Do you have proof of this information? At least, a phone number listed or something? It will be great to catch this fish. This behavior of some of SAEA is very scary. But, yes, some of them, have been so long in this positions, that are experts in breaking bylaws, but the issue is that if we are not paying attention to the details, nobody will notice it.
God, you eople have no clue.
#6
Proof of what phone number? The private anger management company and SAEA member using the SAEA office? I believe that has already been posted on the first half of the year of the SAUSD thread.
The post from the SAUSD corruption thread is, in part, below. The mail address used by Isensee and Miller is the SAEA office. The phone number used by Miller is the SAEA office phone number. The general number used by Century Anger Management is a switchboard front number used by a number of companies. You can google them all.
District-paid grievance chair, Jennifer Isensee, and SAEA “ChalkTalk” editor, Scott Miller may be using SAEA union offices for personal gain as “Anger Management” service providers:
http://www.angercertification.com/Certified-Provider-City.aspx?state=CA&city=Santa+Ana
Information per that site:
Century Anger Management Provider List for Santa Ana, California
Century Anger Management provides two levels of certification:
• Level 1 — Content Training
• Level 2 — Certified Anger Management Professional
Level 2 Providers
Jennifer Isensee
c/o Santa Ana Unified School District
2107 N. Broadway, Suite 305
Santa Ana, CA 92706
Phone: 714-317-6636
jennisaea@hotmail.com
Scott C. Miller
2107 N. Broadway
Suite 305
Santa Ana, CA 92706
Phone: 7145426758
csmiller@pacbell.net
to #8,#9
Wow! Thank you for your answers. Now, it will be appropriate to send this information to CTA. If they are using this office for their own personal gain, what else are they doing? and they are elected again as officers! Wake up, Santa
Ana Education Association.
#10 ST –
There are reasons that this election was so all-out important to that group. Scott Miller is already using membership resources for his own purposes, and now he has been apparently elected to be TREASURER for SAEA. How does that sit with you?
Also, Scott has just sent out a notice about the faux “rally” coming up. In his notice, he informs site reps that they have to call the office to get the “talking points” of the rally! OMG! What does that mean? That office staff Paul and Rue are gonna have to gin up some talking points to anyone who actually bothers to call? Don’t bother going to the SAEA website to view the supposed “talking points” of the rally. There are not there! http://www.sateach.org/
What an absolute joke! It would be funny, but it’s not because there are a ton of SA teachers losing their jobs while those jokers fiddle around being clueless, pointless and greedy.
Thanks, again, Anonplus for the recap.
Wouldn’t ALL of the union members be so fortunate to have union resources and facilities at their disposal and the tab picked up by others! What chutzpah!
These abuses of power will eventually come to an end.
Sojourner Truth,
Good luck but don’t expect too much. As I wrote all of the major teachers unions and many of the service unions are all affiliated or associated with ACORN (Including C.T.A., N.E.A. and S.E.I.U.). Since Isensee and Miller were elected to even higher posts in the SAEA organization can their be any doubt the entire board is it’s own little click.
ACORN is a multi tentacled clearing house affiliated with at least 230 shell organizations across the U.S and has recently been indicted in no less than 13 states for voter fraud. As that investigation slowly gains steam who knows where it will lead.
#12
You stated “these abuses of power will eventually come to and end”… Abuses do not end, if they are not appropriately denounced. I will be inviting some other people to participate in this blog, because we need to see changes.
silence, and ignorance perpetuates the abuses of power.
#13. So, what else can be done?
“Abuses do not end, if they are not appropriately denounced. I will be inviting some other people to participate in this blog, because we need to see changes.
silence, and ignorance perpetuates the abuses of power”
Bring them! A thousand points of light directed onto darkness will bring forth illuminated answers to the problem 😉
Sojourner truth,
If you feel comfortable, please give me a quick email? There is no obligation, but I wanted to extend the invitation. 🙂
rvixen@gmail.com
Hey Red,
How about this. Two days after I reposted your info about Century Anger Management they removed the SAEA office address from their website. Now all they have to do is remove newly elected treasurer Millers SAEA phone number and the coverup will be complete!
SAEA may not have any ideas on how to help their members but they are a little better at covering their asses. Get that SAEA phone number off that website guys so you can finish the job!
Red,
Well obviously someone is quicker than I was at notifying you about the change. I’ve been reading the main thread but the teachers are covering the ground without me repeating the same points.
No doubt any other “sidelines” are going to be exposed or buried very quickly. I’d be interested to know if the new union prez realizes her job is more than just a reporter of bad news and is supposed to be an activist for those membership dues.
Anonplus,
It looks like you saw my last post before it accidently got deleted.
I agree, there are a lot of folks on the sidelines and the numbers of people who are willing to tell things for Re-post has gone up nicely. In fact, a whole lot of stuff never makes it to re-post because it seems to be person-specific, but it does help me see the patterns of abuse that occur again and again. I’ll be able to make accurate generalizations in the future. One disturbing, reoccuring theme is that there is deliberate refusal to return calls and deliberate refusal to keep members informed in an organized way, like email. Members are constantly told that their reps have the information, or that they need to go to board meetings or that they need to attend rep council meetings personally – so it is the FAULT OF THE MEMBER if they ask a question and they don’t receive a direct answer. I think we know that is garbage – the so-called “talking points” that members and reps have to call the office for is NOT ON THE SAEA WEBSITE AS OF THIS POSTING. Of course, the Anger Management site is all scrubbed up and the “Winners!” pictures are also missing. But there is no sign of those important “talking points”.
In case Scott and Jennifer missed it: You are STILL listing Santa Ana as your service area, yet neither of you actually LIVE in SA. Please stop using members-paid facilities and resources for your own personal gain. Thanks, buckaroos! 😉
The folks who email me information and problems are not subversive folks. They are a variety of people who want these job losses taken seriously and who are fed up with all the self-serving crappola that has been going on. This district and union are engaged in a dysfunctional, self-ish relationship at the expense of many.
The numbers of readers for the SAUSD threads is very high -never higher – of late.
I was actually kind of surprised by Art’s very angry assessment of the Sup on his last thread. He’s a taxpayer and a parent and it’s got to be completely disturbing to see how things are operating in SA.
Tell your friends to join in. Read up, get informed. Demand BETTER!
Did you attend the board meeting? the president was cutting people off/ 1 minute to discuss the issue of transparency, with so much darkness there, but anyway, I believe the new president Mercer, needs to prepare the speakers to yield their time to the others to approach better this meetings. Well, may be she does not know parliamentarian procedures yet! If a lot of speakers yield their time to one good speaker, more can be achieved.
It’s a jungle out there! I am so concerned about the new teachers, that are being laid off, in this time of crisis. My heart goes to them all.
#20 clarification: the president of the board was cutting people off (time)
#20 sojourner truth,
Hmmm…. I remember being asked to fill out a card to speak on the day of the rally. I told the union guy that i wasn’t going to be able to stay. His response, “that’s Ok, we just want to present 600 cards to the Board. This way they’ll have to stay until late… they’ll have to call each and every name, yeah, we’ll show them!”
Your comment is making me reflect. I wonder if the union’s collecting 600 cards had an ill intent… Let’s see, if the people running our union are completely crazy and ignorant that’s terrible! WE SHOULD KICK THEM OUT FOR INCOMPETENCE!!!
Now, if they collected the 600 cards in order to help the District silence teachers and parents the accomplished it! Presenting all those cards caused parents and teachers to loose precious talking time. This was their opportunity to express their discontent with loosing 20:1!!!.
OMG! THESE VANDALS REALLY HAVE TO BE KICKED OUT!
V E R Y I M P O R T A N T!!!!!!!!!!!
Regarding the information about the Anger Management business, thank you for clarifying it.
At this point, I have no doubt that Scott Miller is not the right person to trust with our money. This individual obviously thinks he is above the law. Who in their right mind would publish someone else’s private information and think it is ok to do so? Only an idiot, a crazy person, or someone convinced he is above the law, would conduct himself this way. How can we trust him to handle SAEA’s money? I say, kick him out!
C A L L T O A C T I O N!
Regarding the “election”, how can we contact CTA to let them know that at my site we didn’t get a fair chance at choosing our SAEA president?
On the day we got the ballots we received Mercer’s information. People began to vote urged by our rep to do so as soon as possible.
Days later we received Chavez’ flyer. More days lapsed and finally we received O’Neil’s flyer.
This election was not fair. As a member, i did not have a fair chance at choosing a candidate. I received a book mark and a flyer form Mercer, that is, two documents from Mercer AND NADA from the others. Much later, after people had already been voting, we received a flyer from Chavez and much, much, much, later we got a final flyer from O’Neil.
I AM FED UP AND READY TO LET CTA KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON HERE! I AM FED UP OF THE ABUSE!!!! ENOUGH!
I URGE OTHER TEACHERS WITH SIMILAR STORIES TO PLEASE DOCUMENT THEIR EXPERIENCE AND POST IT HERE.
PLEASE LET’S TAKE ACTION!
#22 Mega-Fed UP
There are deadlines, so nobody should be pressure to vote if they have not heard about the other candidates. Send this information to the president, Vice-president and Treasurer, their addresses appear in the CTA.org
What are they going to do? Well, since it seems that none of the candidates or members requested another election due to irregularities in the election process, such as the one you are mentioning, it’s a little late to appeal.
But, denouncing the dirt of the process, is the duty of people with courage like yourself. I also urge other teachers with similar stories to document their experience and post it here.
go to CTA.org and you will find their addresses.
Because of the members do not do NADA, as you said, history has the tendency to repeat itself.
RA is here! Make sure to observe your newly elected leaders SAEA! Make sure they work!