While many of the labor partners who work with LA Unified have begin contract talks or submitted their opening proposals, UTLA has maintained radio silence. At least, that’s how it appears to the public.

The only outward suggestions that union officials have been thinking about their demands was President Warren Fletcher’s pronouncement that he wants a 17.6 percent raise for his teachers, who have been without a contract for quite a few years.

Two problems here: One, the union never stipulated whether the demand is for one year, three years or 17 years. Two, Fletcher is a lame duck, who’s three-year term in office ends June 30.

As the in-coming chief, Alex Caputo-Pearl can’t do anything officially until he assumes power on July 1. Meanwhile, he has been meeting privately with school board members, presumably to exchange ideas of what’s possible in a new contract.

There has been lots of talk that recent improving economic conditions could mean a windfall for the union. The state is sending more money to the district through local control funding, another $1 billion or so over the next seven years. The biggest chunk comes right away, 28 percent, with smaller amounts over the succeeding years.

During UTLA’s recent campaign season, many of the candidates for president stumped for higher pay and a return of RIF’d teachers. But Gov. Brown’s announcement last week that higher than expected tax revenues mean more money for local school districts was buzz-killed by his proposal to pay down $74 billion in teacher pension debt, starting with a first payment of $450 million through increased state and teacher contributions.

In net-net terms, where does that leave UTLA prospects for a big boost in take home pay? Maybe somewhere between unlikely and bleak.

The district is in the process of filling in the blanks to complete the 2015 budget by June 17. Some of the biggest blanks are labor costs. Gradually, some are being filled in, based on opening proposals and negotiations from other unions. UTLA is not among them, and the timing may not bode well for its members’ starting the year with a new and improved contract.

That’s partly because of Fletcher’s status and Caputo-Pearl’s start date, which coincides with the first day of the new fiscal year. Or it could be part of a union strategy to begin putting pressure on the district to throw in more dollars — or else — and everybody knows what the or else is.

More than likely for UTLA, the new school year starts by looking a lot like the old school year. Without a new contract, the old pay levels remain in place.

As a campaigner, Caputo-Pearl made no secret of his willingness to strike if teachers don’t get a fair deal. Is that still his strategy? Recent efforts by LA School Report to reach him by telephone and email were ignored. So for the time being, it’s a guessing game.

Superintendent John Deasy, whose responsibility it is to finalize a budget, said he was waiting, too. But he also said he was eager to get started.

“My door is wide open,” he said in an interview. “I’m looking forward to building a strong, collaborative relationship with him. The district needs Alex to be a successful and strong leader, and as for the union, it matters more.”

The board moves into closed session tomorrow, and part of the agenda includes an update from Deasy on negotiations with the district’s labor partners. UTLA is listed among them. For now, it doesn’t sound as if he’ll have much to report.

Mr. President: Alex Caputo-Pearl
Photo–LA Times

UPDATED*

Alex Caputo-Pearl was declared the new UTLA president today as he overwhelmed incumbent Warren Fletcher in the second-round of voting, the LA teachers union announced today.

After outpolling Fletcher 2-1 in the first round, Caputo-Pearl beat him by more than 4-to-1 in the runoff, with 5,801 votes (80.18 percent) to Fletcher’s 1,434 (19.82 percent).

In a statement to LA School Report, Caputo-Pearl congratulated Fletcher on his “very important and continuing service to UTLA” and thanked him for his “gracious approach to this election.”

“With the Union Power team sweeping this election, UTLA members have given its leadership a mandate for our union to lead in the fight for the schools LA students deserve and the respect LA educators deserve,” he said.

“The mandate is for an approach that builds power through aggressive organizing of the membership and organizing of broad coalitions with parents and community to more effectively fight for class size reduction, staffing for safe, clean, well-rounded schools, the pay increase educators deserve, and more – and it equips us to fight against LAUSD’s cynical teacher jails and the broader climate of fear and school destabilization they promote.”

In a statement issued by the union, Fletcher congratulated Caputo-Pearl and said, “Now, more than ever before in our organization’s history, the teachers and Health and Human Services professionals of Los Angeles must speak in a united voice. Now that our election is completed, we will all join together to support Alex and his team as we continue to fight for the quality public schools that our students deserve.”

The union said the voting result is pending challenge and must be certified by the UTLA board to be official. All new officers and the board of directors take office on July 1 and will serve a three-year term through June 30, 2017.

It’s highly doubtful Fletcher would challenge the result, in that he announced after the first round of voting that he was abandoning active campaigning, given the apparent one-sided support for Caputo-Pearl, an LA Unified teacher for more than a decade.

Caputo-Pearl’s triumph, which followed a bitter controversy over his campaign appearances during school hours, signals a major change in the direction of the union, toward more aggressive tactics in achieving policy.

One of his enduring campaign themes was criticizing the current union leadership for a lack of assertiveness in fighting LA Unified on issues that affect teachers. Caputo-Pearl also advocated for a strike if demands were not met, with the firm backing of his Union Power compatriots.

Whether his victory also signals a more consolidated union remains to be seen. Barely a quarter of the 31,500 members voted for president in either round.

It also remains unclear how the election results will match up with a newly-constructed school board, that is holding elections of its own. A special election is scheduled for June 3 to replace the exceedingly pro-union member Marguerite LaMotte, who died in December after 10 years on the board.

The front runner is George McKenna, who is known not to be a favorite of the union. And vice versa. UTLA has endorsed three candidates with UTLA relationships — Sherlett Hendy-Newbill and Rachel Johnson, both of whom are current LA Unified teachers, and Hattie McFrazier, who is a former LA Unified teacher and current health and human services administrator.

The second round of voting also concluded two other runoffs, with Scott Mandel defeating Alex Orozco for the Valley East Area Chair and Bruce Newborn beating Wendi Davis for the Valley West Area Chair.

That gave Caputo-Pearl’s Union Power slate a near sweep of elections. Mandel was the only winner who was not aligned with the Union Power slate.

The second round did not resolve all elective issues for the union. Thirteen positions, including four vice president slots, secretary and treasurer, remain under challenge.

By union rules, the winners take their seats provisionally while the challenges play out. The initial review panel is the UTLA election committee, which either sustains or overrules the challenge. The loser has the right to appeal to an independent arbitrator, whose decision is final. But that process could take months and delay the full force of Caputo-Pearl’s policy thrust.

“This is an exciting time for our union and district,” said Linda Yaron, a UTLA chapter chair and 12th grade English teacher at the School for the Visual Arts and Humanities, RFK campus. “I hope we use the momentum from the election as an opportunity to propel union and district leadership towards greater solutions-based collaboration that is focused on student learning.”

*Adds comment from Warren Fletcher

Caputo-Pearl at the podium; Fletcher, on the right

The first round of the UTLA elections produced two stunning results.

One: For the first time in recent memory, a political faction within the union — Union Power — has gained near total control of the union. In a field of 10 candidates for president, Alex Caputo-Pearl out-polled his nearest competitor, incumbent Warren Fletcher, by a 2-to-1 margin — a runoff is now underway — and Union Power candidates won outright nearly every other union leadership position.

Two: Not that many people cared. In a turning-point election, barely a quarter of UTLA’s 31,000 members bothered to vote.

The combination is a real head scratcher because it makes entirely ambiguous just what members were saying if they were saying anything at all. Even Fletcher bowed to the inevitable, announcing he would no longer actively campaign for another term.

On the one hand, the true believers lined up behind a change agent and his deep bench of compatriots with a lengthy platform that included a focus on raises and the end of teacher jails.

On the other, a silent majority declared they have enough on their hands, with crowded classrooms, curriculum changes and the challenge of providing the best for kids with the least.

It’s as if most teachers, feeling beaten down and demoralized over so many years, considered the options — more of the same under Fletcher or new activism under Union Power — and decided, “Yeah, whatever.”

But even with Caputo-Pearl a virtual lock to lead the union over the next three years, it may not be leadership style or policy demands that determines whether teachers finally get a raise or that RIF’d teachers get rehired. More likely, it’s the economy.

Fletcher has taken his share of hits for his inability to win raises. But in tight economic times, it’s not only teachers who don’t get raises. Lots of Americans don’t get raises. And lots of Americans lose their jobs. Until the country places a higher value on supporting quality teachers and their essential role in sustaining a strong democracy and economy, that’s not going to change.

Caputo-Pearl has campaigned on the need for more aggressive leadership. He talks about the possibility of a strike to force the issues. Fletcher did too, as first-round voting approached.

But California’s rebounding economy may have more to do with potential financial gains for LA Unified teachers than job actions, and now that the district has more money coming in, it would appear that raises are in the works. At least, there’s a line item in the new budget to accommodate them.

Teacher jails? Everybody hates teacher jails, especially the teachers in them. At some time or another, all 10 first-round candidates for union president talked about teacher jails, calling for their elimination, or at least a more a timely and efficient system of due process.

So that’s kind of a wash.

Can Caputo-Pearl’s promise of a more activist union make a difference for rank-and-file teachers in the years ahead? Maybe. A robust economy could make his job a lot easier.

But the larger question is, do UTLA members, who rarely vote in big numbers, really care who’s in charge, an economic upturn, notwithstanding? Was absence from the polls a clear vote of no-confidence in the union?

On his Facebook page, Caputo-Pearl tells his friends, “The work we have both been a part of over the last 5 years of creating a national educator network connecting organizing-focused, aggressive unionists together across Chicago, LA, Milwaukee, Seattle, and many other places is very inspiring. We can make this a national movement.”

It’s a muscular message. But it might have more authority if larger numbers of teachers across Los Angeles were a bigger part of it. So far, it’s not clear they want to be.

Warren Fletcher

Alex Caputo-Pearl, the presumptive next president of UTLA,  said today that current president Warren Fletcher made the right decision by expressing a willingness to step aside in the race to lead the second largest teachers union in the nation.

“We look forward to the opportunity to expand the base of support behind an approach where UTLA leads the fight for quality schools and respect for educators through powerful organizing and coalition-building,” Caputo-Pearl told LA School Report.

In the recent union election of 10 candidates or president, Caputo-Pearl, head of the left-leaning “Union Power” slate, ran away with first-place in the first round of voting, gathering twice as many votes as Fletcher, even though only a quarter of the membership cast ballots.

As the top vote-getters in the first round, but neither with a majority, they are now competing in a second round of voting.

Candidates in the Union Power group swept the first round, picking up majority wins in nearly every leadership position within UTLA. The shift in Union Power suggests a major change ahead in union strategies and policies. Throughout his campaign Caputo-Pearl advocated for more aggressive actions on behalf of teachers, including a strike to secure a new contract for the union that would include a raise for the first time in seven years.

“We are glad that President Fletcher recognizes that the membership sees the need to move in this direction,” Caputo-Pearl said, adding, “The more we can be united behind this approach, the more successful we will be.”

Fletcher on Sunday told the LA Times he will no longer actively campaign for reelection because “only a fool fights in a burning house.”

In an interview with LA School Report today he expanded: “We are facing a lot of unprecedented outside challenges — attacks on our profession. We are in a situation where we need to make sure that we are as strong as we can be and that’s part of what’s driving the decision on my part.”

If he loses, Fletcher said he’ll return to the classroom.

“It helps that I like teaching,” he said laughing. “Remember, I went to college and studied to be a teacher. This three year period has been the exception and I’m going back to the thing that is my profession.”

Vivian Ekchian, LA Unifie’d chief labor negotiator

Within LA Unified’s proposed budget for 2014-2015, Superintendent John Deasy includes a line item for teacher raises.

However, in the absence of a contract for the last three years between the district and the teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles, labor talks remain at a complete standstill, raising questions about just how much remains “TBD.”

“Neither UTLA nor the District has initiated negotiations for any re-opener or successor agreements at this time,” Vivian Ekchian, chief labor negotiator for LA Unified, told LA School Report.  

Teachers are working on a temporary contract. UTLA’s last agreement with the district ended in 2011, and Ekchian says their contract is extended on a day-to-day basis.

“It’s difficult to estimate a timeline with an ending date, but it certainly will be very sensitive to the needs of our employees,” Ekchian said.

UTLA is seeking a 17.6 percent salary increase over an unspecified amount of time, though the average contract lasts three years.

“It’s been more than a year since California voters approved Proposition 30, the tax increase that is bringing millions of new dollars into the District,” UTLA said in a statement shortly after voting for the salary boost.

The state’s new school Local Control Funding Formula is also generating hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue over the next seven years.

Union members last received a cost of living increase in 2007. They also agreed to 16 furlough days throughout the recession, with “each day equaling about half a percent of pay,” according to UTLA President Warren Fletcher.

Deasy, yesterday, thanked all district employees for their “sacrifices” during the budget crisis.

After walking the school board through his budget, he added, “Many employees have not had raises in six to seven years and it’s important to address that.”

It’s down to two candidates from the original field of ten: between current president Warren Fletcher, considered a moderate, and left-leaning candidate Alex Caputo-Pearl. Pearl not only pulled in twice the votes of Fletcher in the first round (although not the 50 percent needed to prevent a run-off), but made a clean sweep with his slate called Union Power, claiming a win for almost every internally elected seat which included dozens of positions.

(See list of Union Power endorsements, here. See full list of the results from the first round, here.)

In this runoff, which ends when members send their ballots in at the end of April, there are just three seats up for grabs: UTLA president, Valley East Area Chair and Valley West Area Chair.

While only a quarter of the members participated in the first round, interest could pick up as it did in 2011 when Warren Fletcher came from behind to beat his opponent Julie Washington in the runoff.

UITLA’s election drew only 23 percent of the membership

UTLA is headed in a new direction —  mostly veering to the left.

Despite a low turnout, Union Power candidates claimed victory today, with wins in nearly every leadership position within UTLA, the nation’s second-largest teachers union.

The progressive group — which plans to call for a strike if a new teacher contract can’t be negotiated soon — won outright in races for NEA Affiliate vice president, AFT Affiliate vice president, Elementary VP, Secondary VP, Treasurer, and Secretary. The race for President will be decided in a run-off pitting Union Power leader, Alex Caputo-Pearl, against incumbent Warren Fletcher.

“This shows that our members want UTLA to pro-actively and assertively fight against the attacks on the profession, while fighting for a clear vision of quality schools that we build through aggressive organizing with members, parents, and community,” Caputo-Pearl said in a statement.

Although he fell short of getting 51 percent of votes in the first round, Caputo-Pearl says he’s confident he’ll come out on top in the end.

“The organizing that led to these successes today,” he said, “will propel us to victory in the fight for a pay increase, for class size reduction and increases in staffing, against teacher jail, and around all of the other issues that are critical in public education today.”

Fletcher received fewer than half the votes Caputo-Pearl captured. He responded to the news in a statement, saying, “The results of the first round of the UTLA election were fairly unambiguous. The voting membership has decisively signaled the desire for a change in direction. To assert otherwise would be to deny an obvious reality.”

“I am confident that UTLA, whether under Mr. Caputo-Pearl’s leadership or mine, will move forward into the next three years with the common goal of fighting for what is best for students, for schools, and for the classroom,” he added.

John Lee, Senior Executive Director of Teach Plus in Los Angeles, told LA School Report that Union Power “was clearly the best organized among the different groups,” evidenced by their ability to get the endorsement of more than 250 UTLA chapter chairs. But Lee says the group’s sweep is far from a mandate on anything, given the total number of ballots cast. Only about 23 percent of UTLA’s 31,552 members participated in the election. And even Arlene Inouye, the incumbent treasurer who had the most votes (4,231) in her race, received only 13.5 percent of the total votes cast.

“When you’re talking about only only a quarter of members voting, that tells us that the majority of UTLA members aren’t engaged,” Lee said. “That means you have this vocal minority who are setting the direction for the union.”

Several Teach Plus fellows launched a petition initiative to increase UTLA member participation by allowing online voting but the endeavor is on hold until after the elections.

Gregg Solkovits came in third in the run for president, ending his bid for the position once held by his mother.

“Whoever is the next UTLA president is going to have to face the dilemma that unless you get UTLA well organized and ready to fight, then UTLA becomes increasingly powerless,” he told LA School Report.

Throughout his campaign Solkovits, like Caputo-Pearl, said the union has failed exert any strength over Superintendent John Deasy or the school board in negotiating a new teacher contract. The last contract expired two-years ago, leaving teachers and the district to operate under a temporary contract.

“My plan also was that we make sure that every school has a chapter chair then the union would have the ability to threaten a strike, Solkovits said. “A union that can’t threaten a strike is basically at the mercy of management.”

And that’s not a Union Power idea, he said, “that’s basically Union 101.”

*Clarifies Teach Plus involvement in election process.

Previous Posts: Misunderstood election rules cause friction among UTLA candidates; Tensions rise among UTLA candidates, take on issues and each other; At a UTLA candidate forum, issues break out within the mudslinging.

Alex Caputo-Pearl

All that criticism of Warren Fletcher as a weak UTLA president and of Alex Caputo-Pearl as a campaign rules scofflaw apparently didn’t make much difference.

They emerged as the top two vote-getters for the president of United Teacher Los Angeles in the first round of voting in the union’s 2014 election campaign and are now headed to a runoff. The survivor wins a three-year term.

While Caputo-Pearl, head of the left-leaning “Union Power” slate, ran away with first-place, collecting 3,408 votes (48%), Fletcher came in second with 1,508 votes (21.2%), and not far behind was Gregg Solkovits, the current secondary vice president, who had 1,142 votes (16%).

Bill Gaffney led the remaining candidates with 323 votes.

Warren Fletcher, current president of UTLA

Only 7,099 votes were cast for the 10 men running for president, representing 22 percent of the 31,000 member union. voting members.

The results are pending challenges and must be certified by the UTLA Board to be official. A challenge is likely – opponents have accused Caputo-Pearl of violating union election rules by campaigning during school hours without permission. (Read story here).

Superintendent John Deasy tells LA School Report that the principal who gave Alex Caputo-Pearl permission to take unpaid time off to campaign has been disciplined. The LA Times reports that Caputo-Pearl is facing discipline for taking a leave of absence to campaign. (Read story here).

The union said ballots for the runoff will be mailed out on April 7. Only the race for the presidency is going to a runoff. For all other offices and positions, winners had a majority vote. Once all election cycles are complete, the new Officers and Board of Directors members take office July 1, 2014, and will serve until June 30, 2017.

Complete election results can be found here.

David Garcia, one of nine men challenging the incumbent, Warren Fletcher, has been dismissed as an LA Unified teacher, putting his candidacy in limbo.

Garcia confirmed his firing in an email circulated on Friday and blamed it on his challenging the district on an issue involving other candidates’ being able to campaign during school hours. A district official in the human resources division confirmed the dismissal.

But whether that means Garcia must withdraw as a candidate remains uncertain.

Mike Dreebin, co-chair of the UTLA Election Committee, said in an email that Garcia was an eligible candidate as of the deadline to submit nomination forms and the committee has no confirmation yet that Garcia was fired.

No immediate action would be taken, he explained, because Garcia still has several options, including the right to file a grievance with UTLA and seek legal action against the district.

Dreebin said if Garcia makes it into a runoff for president, “the matter will be dealt with then.”

“Ultimately,” he wrote, “it will be up to the UTLA Board of Directors to determine what to do if a candidate wins, but has been fired and is no longer an employee of the District. The Board of Directors formally ‘seats’ new Officers, and Board of Director representatives, after the results of the elections are presented to them by the UTLA Elections Committee.”

The district did not immediately respond to an effort to learn why Garcia, a substitute, was fired.

Previous post: Deasy says principal who ok’d campaign leave was disciplined

Superintendent John Deasy

LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy said a principal who gave Alex Caputo-Pearl permission to take unpaid time off to campaign for president of the teachers union, UTLA, has been disciplined.

The action came in response to accusations that the leave, a violation of district’s contract with UTLA, provided Caputo-Pearl an unfair advantage over other candidates by allowing him to campaign during school hours.

Caputo-Pearl is one of nine men challenging Warren Fletcher, who is seeking a second three-year term.

“First neither I nor any administrator at Beaudry approved any leave for Mr. Caputo-Pearl or any other UTLA candidate. I believe his principal may have done such,” Deasy said in an email. “A letter was sent to Mr. Fletcher notifying him of the situation. And the principal has been disciplined. The letter further clarified that our interpretation (long standing) of the contract was that such a practice is prohibited.”

While Caputo-Pearl defended his campaigning, pointing to Fletcher’s ability to do the same as the incumbent, the district finally ordered him to stop.

Yet as tomorrow’s deadline approaches for UTLA members to mail in their ballots for elective positions this year, accusations of cheating persist.

Several of the candidates for president have suggested that Deasy granted Caputo-Pearl permission as a way to influence the election — never mind that Caputo-Pearl has been as critical as any candidate of Deasy and his policies.

No candidate has focused more attention on the issue than David Garcia, whose campaign is aimed at rooting out “corruption” by ousting Fletcher and all who serve with him.

Garcia has been particularly suspicious of an October dinner Deasy had with six union area chairs who are also Union Power members, suggesting that conversations that night led a wink from the district, that Union Power members would be allowed to campaign during school hours. With permission or not, some did while other candidates who sought time off to campaign were denied.

Fletcher has filed an unfair practice complaint against the district with the state Public Employment Relations Board, charging that the district bypassed official union representatives by engaging in discussions with other union members.

Garcia, in a March 9 email to the UTLA election committee and 60 other recipients, including the New Yorker, Mother Jones, the Washington Post and People magazine, wrote in the subject line: “RAMPANT CHEATING IN L.A. TEACHER’S UNION, CITY WIDE ELECTIONS”

Here’s what he said, in part:

“The union power slate has been visiting campuses since September of last year, ok? These same individuals had a dinner ‘meeting’ with the Superintendent, although what they talked about, no one knows for certain…. While its (sic) purely speculation on my part, its (sic) possible that the Superintendent met with these people to voice his dissatisfaction in Warren Fletcher ——and to encourage these people to run for office…still with me?

“Union Power has several candidates who are chapter chairs and who are also running for UTLA leadership positions…These same people, who are running for Union Power positions AND in positions of authority within the union were also the same individuals who allowed Alex Pearl to ‘visit’ their school sites, ok?”

In his email, Deasy wrote: “Wow. Not even sure how one constructs such a narrative.”

Deasy went on to write that the dinner included “several area chairs” but not Caputo-Pearl. He said the issue of campaigning “never came up,” and the conversation “dealt with local issues like parent trigger and some very specific valley school climate issues.”

He did not name the principal who was disciplined.

In a March 6 email, to the UTLA election committee and its members, Garcia repeated his accusation of the district “ ‘unfairly influencing a UTLA election’ by allowing certain candidates to miss work and prohibiting others from doing the same.”

He further suggests in the same email that the district gave the Union Power members an unfair advantage by paying the substitutes who took over for them while they were campaigning.

The district did not respond to questions about another of Garcia’s suspicions, that if substitutes were called in while candidates were out campaigning, the district was making a “campaign contribution” to Union Power by paying for the substitutes.

As eager as he has been raising the issues at candidate forums and in emails, Garcia did not respond to a series of questions from LA School Report, seeking elaboration on his accusations.

Previous Posts: LA Unified teachers union race gets national attention; Misunderstood election rules cause friction among UTLA candidates; At a UTLA candidate forum, issues break out within the mudslinging.

David Garcia (left), Alex Caputo-Pearl
Candidates for President of UTLA

Tensions deepened last night among the candidates running for the top job at United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) as one of them came close to a physical confrontation with another after the event ended.

Hosted by the teacher advocacy group, Educators4Excellence, at City Hall in Boyle Heights, the event played before a crowd of about 60 teachers, activists, students and community members dining on Subway sandwiches.

E4E members Bianca Sanchez and Jeff Austin moderated four questions to the 10 candidates — all male — running to lead the second largest union in the nation.

Friction was most evident between David Garcia, a substitute teacher, and Alex Caputo-Pearl, who is running at the top of a slate called “Union Power,” over Caputo-Pearl’s recent campaign appearances at LA Unified schools. Garcia angrily accused Caputo-Pearl of violating union election rules and misusing his ties to LAUSD. After the forum, the two nearly got into an altercation, as Garcia swatted at Caputo-Pearl before being restrained.

Other candidates, like Saul Lankster, agreed with Garcia’s accusations, saying that the school district is “giving Caputo-Pearl all the answers to the test since he has had unfettered access to all schools since September.”

The district has said Caputo-Pearl did not file proper paperwork for the unpaid leave, but he has not been disciplined.

“We have to accept fact that this is a very specialized election and the district has made its vote,” Lankster continued as a few crowd members clapped and hooted.

Such issues are why E4E hosted the forum, as the previous debates have often spiraled off topic and were rooted in rhetoric and personal attacks, according to E4E Executive Director Ama Nyamekye.

“There is too much at stake here in LAUSD and UTLA not to ask our candidates to squarely tackle tough policy issues,” she said. “We need to refocus the debate in this election.”

The moderators asked questions that sometimes elicited concrete responses, though a handful of candidates continued to push certain issues no matter what the question.

The very first questions of the evening — what inspired a candidate to run and what first three priorities would be tackled as president — were first addressed by Garcia, who immediately launched into accusing LAUSD of giving Caputo-Pearl preferential treatment by allowing him to take unpaid leave and hire substitutes to visit schools and campaign.

“There is a lot of favoritism going on in this election,” Garcia said. “It’s a corrupt circus.”

Lankster reminded the crowd that closing teacher jails was his top priority.

“It’s more important to me than anything in this race,” he said.

Marcus Ortegas II, a teacher in a “teacher jail,” revised a familiar theme, vowing to change UTLA’s color from red to pink to promote a new, more encompassing leadership.

Kevin Mottus stuck to his platform that Wifi and digital classrooms are seriously endangering students and teachers, citing six teachers who reportedly all died from cancer at one school.

Bill Gaffney said he favors a 20 percent raise for teachers.

The forum also aimed to address hot issues facing teachers that the union and district have clashed about in the past, such as differentiated compensation.

No candidate gave a simple “yes” or “no” answer on how to reward teachers, except Innocent Osunwa, a new union member, who flatly vetoed the idea and said the policy “forces favoritism and encourages discrimination.”

The other nine candidates said they would only support paying certain teachers more money if those teachers put in “extra work, had earned degrees and years of experience,” according to Caputo-Pearl.

Warren Fletcher, the incumbent, reminded the group that this has been in place for a year, and it is meant to “reward experience.” However, Fletcher criticized Superintendent John Deasy for transforming it into a “bonus for test scores to leverage teachers.”

Surprisingly, all 10 candidates basically agreed on the next question—that Gov. Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula money should be spent at the school level.

The moderators ended the forum by asking candidates if they believe the union has an obligation to fix the tense and fractured relationship with Deasy and other district leaders.

Fletcher said the district has been vying to “mechanize teaching for years,” and that its senior leadership has a history of intentionally marginalizing teachers.

“We know that LAUSD bureaucracy operates counter to instructional logic,” he said.

For Osunwa and Greg Solkovits, the answer was blaming the media.

“Big media has an anti-union bent and that will never change,” said Solkovits.

Osunwa added that the media discriminate against teachers.

Mottus said he would introduce weekly meetings with the superintendent, adding that Fletcher lost the relationship with the school district with his vote of no confidence in Deasy months ago. He then paused, and returned to condemning Wifi in classrooms.

The two-hour forum ended much as it began, with Caputo-Pearl defending his campaign actions and his union team, and Garcia heatedly interjecting and calling conspiracy.

“The knives are out,” Caputo-Pearl said.

With help from health and human services workers, teachers intend to pass out informational leaflets before and, in some cases, after school.

The leaflets ask parents to contact LA Unified board members to push for using new tax dollars in the classroom.

“Students and LAUSD employees all suffered during the recession years,” UTLA President Warren Fletcher said in a statement. Now that the District has the money, it’s time to right some wrongs. It is wrong when school librarians are laid off and campus libraries are closed; when schools do not have a full time nurse; and when there are not enough mental health professionals to serve student needs. It’s wrong when schools are unsanitary and unsafe.”

Alex Caputo-Pearl, far right, at UTLA Forum last week

Recent campaign appearances by Alex Caputo-Pearl at schools around LA Unified have ignited a dispute among candidates for UTLA offices who say election rules — such as they are  — are being applied unfairly. The conflict has also brought into focus how misunderstood the rules seem to be.

The source of the infighting is what some candidates perceive as their right to campaign at school campuses during working hours.

The conflict arose last week after Caputo-Pearl, leader of the Union Power slate and one of the perceived front runners for UTLA president in unseating incumbent Warren Fletcher, said his principal at Frida Kahlo High School had granted him about 12 days of unpaid personal leave to visit 30 schools to campaign teachers to vote for him.

That prompted several of his opponents to raise the possibility that his actions were illegal by district election rules. They were, according to Leticia Figueroa, LA Unified’s director of employee performance accountability, who said a school principal has no say in the decision.

She told LA School Report that permission can only be granted by the district Human Resources department and “the employee did not follow district procedures in obtaining appropriate permission for an unpaid leave.”

“There is no paperwork on file with the district’s HR department,” she said. The “paperwork” is a district form that must be completed in requesting an unpaid leave. It lists 15 possible reasons, and none is for election campaigning although one is vague enough to provide a rationale for it — “Personal Leave, not for family illness.”

For its part, UTLA officials say that by union campaign rules Caputo-Pearl’s has done nothing wrong. The union’s labor agreement with the district lists seven reasons for unpaid leave, but none explicitly covers union campaigning.

In any event, the district put a stop to Caputo-Pearl’s school day campaigning.

At the presidential forum last week, where the issue was first made public, Caputo-Pearl defended his school site visits.

“It’s a way to level the playing field [with Fletcher] who is allowed to be out there, talking to teachers everyday,” he said in an interview with LA School Report.

He also said he made all necessary provisions to ensure his students would not be affected. Caputo-Pearl said the district has no right to prevent him from stumping.

“Classroom teachers and health and human service workers are incensed that the District has attacked my contractual and legal right to take unpaid personal leave,” he told LA School Report. “When that is taken away by the District – this is classic management interference in a union election, and a glaring unfair labor practice, which we are pursuing filing.”

Over the last few days, candidates have been raising questions to each other, union officials and the district about what the rules are and how they should be applied — under an apparent false assumption that the candidate’s principal can grant the leave.

Some are are demanding that the union election committee step in and disqualify Caputo-Pearl and other members of the Union Power slate who may have also campaigned during school hours.

And this is what has some candidates up in arms, the idea that if left to the discretion of an administrator, campaigning rules could be applied unevenly, impacting the outcome of a race.

As an example, Laura McCutcheon, a candidate for UTLA treasurer, heard about Caputo-Pearl’s lunch-time meetings with teachers and sought to do the same, according to a collection of emails sent to LA School Report, bearing the the names of UTLA candidates. But her request was apparently turned down by her school principal, according to her email.

It was McCutcheon who first alerted the UTLA elections committee about the apparent irregularities of the policy, setting off a chain of finger pointing and charges of discrimination. A union official confirmed the authenticity of her email.

In her email, McCutcheon referred to LA Unified’s downtown headquarters in messages to several other candidates: “Well, Beaudry deferred to my principal who defers to Beaudry who said no but said up to principal who will put nothing in writing but will not sign my [request]. Uhm.”

Figueroa said McCutcheon’s understanding of the process was incorrect.

The same collection of emails included messages that appear to have been sent by presidential candidate Marcos Ortega II and David Garcia to union officials, each expressing their displeasure over Caputo-Pearl’s actions and threatening to file complaints against the union.

But efforts to reach both of them to confirm the authenticity of the emails were unsuccessful.

Previous Posts: At a UTLA candidate forum, issues break out within the mudslinging; In forum, UTLA president candidates discuss big ideas — and a strike.

The competition for the top job of UTLA president, which pays north of $100,000 a year, is tough. There are nine challengers (see our rundown here) hoping to prevent the incumbent president Warren Fletcher from taking a second term.

To help members decide, UTLA has posted brief campaign video statements on a YouTube channel, not only for president, but for all of the union positions in contention.

For those who would rather read about the candidates, the special election edition of the union newspaper, the United Teacher, has printed candidate statements and ballot instructions.

Previous Posts: UTLA candidate forum, issues break out within the mudslinging; In forum, big ideas — and a strike,  In race to run powerful teachers union: ideology up for grabs

Coming our way?

Presidential candidates in the race to lead the United Teachers of Los Angeles faced tough questions and a rowdy audience last night, in the second forum of the campaign season.

It was the first time all 10 candidates — Alex Caputo-Pearl, the incumbent Warren Fletcher, Bill Gaffney, David Garcia, Saul Lankster, Kevin Mottus, Marcos Ortega II, Innocent Osunwa, Leonard Segal and Gregg Solkovitz — have participated in such an event, drawing a modest audience of about 45 people at Monroe High School in the Valley.

Unlike the forum last month, during which the candidates spent most of their time discussing disfunction within the union, this meeting was all about the big issues: (finally) negotiating a salary increase and improving UTLA’s relationships with LA Unified administration and the school board

On the question of a pay raise, nearly all candidates agreed, a strike may be necessary.

“We need to organize our schools and give the district our demands but if they’re not receptive, we go on strike,” Solkovitz said. “We should have been doing this since March.”

Segal agreed but warned that a strike with the wrong person at the helm could potentially bankrupt the union. “We could lose up to a million dollars a day.”

Caputo-Pearl argued the union needs to launch an “escalating action to give members confidence as [UTLA] builds up to a credible threat of a strike.”

Lankster, however, opposed the idea of yanking teachers out of the classroom and into a picket line.

“No, we will not go on strike,” he told the audience. “We don’t sell out our membership.” He said, only UTLA leadership should be asked to make that level of sacrifice, not average teachers who are living hand to mouth.

Lankster also said a 17 percent raise — which is what the current leadership is demanding — is “not reasonable.” A more reasonable goal he said, would be to aim for an 8 to 10 percent increase.

The candidates were split on how best to improve UTLA’s relationship with the school board. Lankster, Caputo-Pearl, Garcia, and Mottus agreed that a show of strength is the best avenue.

The only way to make the district sit up and listen is when “we unite with the other unions of LA Unified, and organize parents and community groups,” Fletcher said.

But Gaffney said he favors a more conciliatory approach and suggested “interest-based bargaining,” which requires both sides to acknowledge they have something to gain from a relationship.

“It has gotten better deals for teachers in Santa Monica and Long Beach,” he said, before adding, “We can’t always butt heads and we need to start building trust.”

The next forum is on Thursday at UTLA headquarters from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Previous posts: In race to run powerful teachers union: ideology up for grabs; Candidates for the teachers union presidency ganged up on Fletcher.

The union has shown signs of deep fracture lately, and with just 20 percent of the union’s 35,000 members expected to vote, the winner’s message will have to capture the votes of just a couple thousand teachers, in a long and drawn out process that begins on Feb. 25, and might not end until spring.

At the same time, with the union facing declining enrollment and revenue, the race is set to highlight a debate raging about its role, goals and tactics: should it stick to bread and butter issues of pay and contracts, or expand its mission to tackle race and equity? How confrontational should it be?

At this early juncture, 10 candidates, all of them men, are vying for attention in the first round of balloting (see ballot order here). Here’s a snapshot look at them:

Warren Fletcher

As current president of UTLA, Fletcher has both the advantages and disadvantages of the incumbency. He’s become the target of left-leaning activists who see him as too moderate and unwilling use tactics like strikes and protests.

But at the first presidential candidate forum, Fletcher defended his leadership, saying that members are better off today than they were when he took office. As achievements, he pointed to furlough days being eliminated, the district’s putting a stop to annual RIF cycles, and that both Adult and Early Education were saved from complete elimination. He also pointed to the cap placed on the Public School Choice program (which allowed failing schools to be reconstituted as charters), and how he campaigned on behalf of two school board members – Steve Zimmer and Monica Ratliff – against reform backed candidates. He’s advocated for a pay hike and pressed the district to rehire teachers.

In 2011, Fletcher defeated seven other candidates and prevailed in a runoff, succeeding A.J. Duffy. Previously he has served on UTLA’s Board of Directors and in the House of Representatives. He started with LAUSD in 1978 as a teachers’ assistant and became a classroom teacher in 1983.

Alex Caputo-Pearl
Well positioned as a formidable Fletcher opponent, Alex Caputo-Pearl is running at the top of a slate called “Union Power” – that includes seven colleagues running for other down-ballot positions.

Caputo-Pearl represents a faction within UTLA that is clamoring to push the union to the left. The platform includes social equity issues, creating a “credible threat of a strike”; a pushback on Breakfast in the Classroom; and a double digit salary increase. Caputo-Pearl told LA School Report last year that current leadership is “overwhelmingly defensive and reactive … taking things issue by issue,” and that’s not “going to help build quality schools.”

To strengthen UTLA’s leverage, Caputo-Pearl says he will develop a coalition branch and a communications department and will cultivate a team of researchers and experts “to frame the debate” on big issues like the Common Core.

Caputo-Pearl is currently a member of the UTLA Board of Directors and a teacher at Frida Kahlo High School. He spent more than half of his 22 years of teaching at Crenshaw High School, where he started the Coalition for Educational Justice. As a vocal opponent of reconstituting Crenshaw after it was found to be failing by the district, he was not rehired by the new administration. Website: unionpower2014.org

Gregg Solkovits
Now in his second term as UTLA Secondary Vice-President, Solkovits is well known figure within the union – his mother served as UTLA president starting in 1979, and he has held numerous leadership roles within UTLA.

Solkovits is seen as a moderate, and talks about trying to find new voices and ideas from union membership. “There are a lot of younger teachers, people with divergent points of view,” he tells LA School Report. “We need to listen to them.” On his website he says he will “appoint a diverse body of activists to propose changes to position UTLA for the fights of the future.”

At the first candidate forum, Solkovits argued it’s time to update UTLA’s governing structures and constitution. “The constitution was written in 1969 . . . and it sets up a system where there are a lot of chiefs without much input from average members.”
“I would get rid of it, rewrite it, and make it easier to pass motions.”
The position Solkovits is vacating to run for president will be the only open seat. Solkovits has been an LA Unified high school teacher for 28 years.
Website: gsolkforutlapresident.com

Bill Gaffney
A dark horse in the race, Gaffney is a moderate who talks about needing to create a productive relationship with the LA Unified district. He became involved with UTLA in 2007 after the district-wide payroll system changeover, which left thousands of teachers without a pay-check.
“I had not been paid in three months and saw little being done on our behalf,” he says on his web site. “The lack of action and compassion I experienced encouraged me to run for Chapter Chair, a seat I ended up winning.” His plan as president includes a salary raise and a stipend for ongoing professional development. Gaffney may get some help from teachers who don’t usually get involved with ideology of the left. He was recently featured on the website of The Teacher Action Network, led by GreenDot founder, Steve Barr. Gaffney is a science teacher and basketball coach at Fulton College Prep in Van Nuys. He’s been a teacher for 28 years. Website: www.billforutlapres.com

David Garcia
With a battle cry of “Don’t let the rats steal your money,” Garcia doesn’t sugar coat his message. As a a former Navy corpsman and Gulf War veteran he calls the leadership of UTLA “incompetent” and “pseudo-leaders.”

Laid off in 2010 because of budget cuts, Garcia is now a substitute teacher who is a frequent speaker at LAUSD school board meetings.  His flier, “Revolution Solution,” promotes lowering union dues (with the promise to return dues if UTLA fails to represent them), teacher self-evaluation, and making all officer and board meetings open to the public. Garcia is against UTLA’s push for a 17.6 percent salary increase. “Regular people are losing money,” he said at the presidential candidate forum in January, “and a raise would alienate us from them.” Instead, he says the union, especially teachers, “need to build up a positive image within the community.”

As a parent of four children in the school district, Garcia says he favors randomly searching students for weapons and contraband. He ran for UTLA president in 2011 and received just 1.5 percent of the vote, but this year he could benefit from having drawn the top position on the ballot.

Saul Lankster
Once a charter school teacher and supervisor, Lankster now calls for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools within LA Unified. He says of charters, “I know of the manipulation of test scores, the rip off of public funds provided for children, the exploitation of teachers who oftentimes cannot defend their labor or professional rights in many charter schools.”

Listed on the ballot as “Saul ‘the fighter’ Lankster,” he says he will negotiate a teacher pay raise in his first 18 months in office and put an end to policies that he says target well-paid teachers and land them in “teacher jail.” Now a teacher at Huntington Park High School, Lankster grew up in Alabama and, according to his website, was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and went to jail with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Website: saullankster.com/home.html

Kevin Mottus
A candidate who is focused primarily on health issues, Mottus, is a familiar face at school board meetings where he has frequently spoken out to warn of adverse health effects of wireless digital devices. Last year he presented a motion before the UTLA house of representatives to adopt a policy that would require employees be informed when there are changes in their exposure to environmental hazards including electromagnetic radiation. The motion was adopted. His platform includes a plan to restore PPO medical coverage for members and include disability insurance in union dues.

Mottus is a registered coach for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and helps children and adults with learning disabilities and dyslexia. He works as a psychiatric social worker at the School Mental Health Department at LAUSD, focusing on students with behavioral problems.

Marcos Ortega II
A teacher who has been sitting in “teacher jail” since October for allegedly assaulting a student, Ortega has no other issue he cares more about.

Ortega wants to reform the investigation process for accused teachers. “Teachers are powerless,” he told LA School Report. “A student can accuse you and boom, you’re pulled out of a classroom and thrown in teacher jail for who knows how long,” he said. Ortega also says the current UTLA leadership has eroded the public’s perception of teachers. “The public isn’t with us anymore and I blame our representation,” he said. Finally, he’d like to change the UTLA’s identifying color from red to “anything else.”

Innocent O. Osunwa 
A labor lawyer and English teacher at Stevenson Middle School, Osunwa is one of two candidates who did not participate in the first candidate forum. He is also a relative newcomer to the field, declaring his candidacy during the do-over filing period, which was opened by UTLA to allow potential candidates to pay their back dues to run.

Osunwa has had some previous political experience although his last run for office was probably less successful than he intended. As a write-in candidate for the 32nd Congressional District in California, he lost to Democrat Hilda Solis, 130,042 to 8.

“There was a mistake,” he told LA School Report. “I am a Republican. They listed me as an independent.”

One of his major campaign issues, he said, is the union’s labor contract with LA Unified. “It has too many loopholes in the way it is worded,” he said. “It has teacher protections, but on the other hand, teacher protections are taken away.” Also, he said, the system of teacher evaluation is “too subjective.”

Leonard Segal
A substitute teacher since 1995, Segal is one of two candidates who did not participate in the first candidate forum. He is the North Calling Area Chapter Chair on the Substitute Teachers Committee and was the NEA Substitute Teacher Caucus Chair from 2003 to 2011.

This is Segal’s second bid for the presidency. He ran in 2011 receiving just over 3 percent of the vote in a field of eight. If that race is any indication, Segal might have entered the race in order to throw his support behind the candidacy of current president Warren Fletcher.  When he ran In 2011, Segal used the advertising space allotted to him in the election edition of the United Teacher to promote his competitor, or perhaps ally, Warren Fletcher.

Eight of the 10 candidates faced off in a debate that resulted in at least one consensus: the current state of the union is fractured and plagued with in-fighting. Though fewer than 40 people attended, those in the audience were treated to lengthy discussions of UTLA governing principles and school board negotiating tactics. Candidates also criticized LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, with one calling him a “corporatee” and accusing his push to rid the district of ineffective teachers as causing irreparable damage to the profession.

Both forums are scheduled to take place from 6-8 PM.

Previous Posts: Union candidates gang up on Fletcher and, of course, Deasy; Candidates seeking Warren Fletcher’s job at UTLA vie for attention; 

Bill Gaffney, one of ten candidates for president of UTLA

The Los Angeles teachers union election process is long – from February to July – and a lot like a reality show, with multiple voting rounds to knock out candidates/contestants, until finally, there’s only one person left standing.

That’s especially true in the race for UTLA president, which has 10 men competing for the chance to lead about 40,000 teachers, counselors, nurses, and other health and human services professionals.

Eight of them faced each other for the first time yesterday, in the first forum of the campaign season. It was held at Thomas Starr King Middle School in Silver Lake, organized by the school’s chapter chair for members of the North Area. Fewer than 40 people attended, and that included candidates for other offices.

Over the course of an hour incumbent Warren Fletcher, Gregg Solkovits, Alex Caputo-Pearl, David Garcia, Bill Gaffney, Saul Lankster, Marcos Ortega II and Kevin Mottus answered questions touching on the union’s successes and failures over the last three years under Fletcher; they addressed the causes of the achievement gap and how to close it; and the opportunities and challenges in LA Unified.

Without wasting any time they all agreed — even Fletcher — the current state of the union is fractured and plagued with in-fighting.

“One of the great challenges we face is disunity,” he admitted to the audience, which, ironically all appeared to be united on this issue.

And, although Fletcher said “discourse is healthy” he cautioned members against becoming entrenched in their differences at the risk of losing recent gains made for the union, such as the passage of Prop. 30. Referring to the extra infusion of cash to the district from the tax initiative, he said, “we need to make sure we don’t fritter it away by being at each others throats.”

All the other candidates blamed Fletcher for the lack of cohesion and clear messaging.

Gaffney, a 28-year teacher, said Fletcher has been an ineffective collaborator and union officers have failed to lead or devise a strategic plan.

“We’re just putting out fires,” he said, throwing his hands in the air.

“We haven’t been able to put ourselves at the table with power,” Caputo-Pearl argued. Instead, “we privately negotiate with school board members and that doesn’t work.”

To strengthen UTLA’s leverage, Caputo-Pearl said he would develop a coalition branch, a communications department, and also cultivate team of researchers and experts “to frame the debate” on big issues like the Common Core.

Solkovits also argued UTLA’s governing structures and constitution are outdated. “The constitution was written in 1969 . . . and it sets up a system where there are a lot of chiefs without much input from average members,” he said in an interview before the event. “I would get rid of it, rewrite it, and make it easier to pass motions.”

But as much as the non-Fletcher candidates blamed the current leadership, the real villain of the night was not in the room: Superintendent John Deasy.

Garcia came out swinging, calling Deasy “Evil Von Sleazy.” He proceeded to punctuate each response by tossing the microphone on the lectern until he was asked to be more respectful of school property.

Lankster accused Deasy of being a “corporatee” and in league with corporate interests.

On a similar note, Fletcher received a smattering of applause when he said, “Deasy was sent to this town to dismantle UTLA” and that the superintendent views LA Unified as a “drill and kill district” for charter organizations hoping to privatize public education.

Mottus suggested Deasy is deliberately ignoring scientific evidence that the district’s wi-fi infrastructure is jeopardizing the health of students and teachers.

Ortega, who says he’s been “trapped in teacher jail” since October, said Deasy’s mission to rid the district of bad teachers has caused irreparable collateral damage.

“Deasy cast a big net and it’s catching sharks and barracudas but it’s also catching guppies and angelfish,” he said.

The low turn out was especially poignant in light of the stream of comments about teacher disenfranchisement.

Throughout the question and answer session, only Fletcher made a brief mention of cuts to the district’s Adult Education programs. That was disappointing to Veronica Toleda, a family literacy programming coordinator at 15th Street Elementary School, who supports Mottus.

“That’s the reason I came,” she said. “I think the people in charge now only focus on K-12 teachers. They forget that adult education teachers are in the union too, and they don’t support us.”

Other topics that received very little attention: teacher evaluations, the Common Core, standardized testing, and the district’s billion dollar iPad program.

Wil Page, the school chapter chair who organized the event and moderated the Q&A session, said that was due to time constraints.

“This is a really long election cycle and I’m sure we’ll get to all of those questions in the time to come,” he said. “This was more like an elimination round. I don’t know who I’m voting for yet, but I know who I’m not voting for after tonight.”

Previous Posts:

Candidates in a crowded field to take the top spot at one of the nation’s most powerful teachers union, UTLA, are angling to distinguish themselves online.

An online search finds that four of the 10 running, Gregg Solkovits, Alex Caputo-Pearl, Saul Lankster and Bill Gafney, have established a website presence, announcing their candidacies and platforms.

UTLA allows candidates to publicly display endorsements and collect campaign donations directly from its membership, which includes 33,000 teachers and other school staff.

Absent from the list is current UTLA President Warren Fletcher, who has a Facebook page from the last UTLA election cycle and an empty Blogspot with a banner, “Elect Warren Fletcher for UTLA President,” but no posts. Other candidates have various personal websites and blogs that do not include information about the election.

Thomas Starr King Middle School is hosting a UTLA candidate forum at 4 pm tomorrow. Solkovits, Caputo-Pearl, Gafney, Lankster, Gafney, Kevin Mottus, Marcos Orterga II and Fletcher have committed to participate.

Election ballots are scheduled be mailed to UTLA members on February 25 but won’t be tabulated until late March.

Previous Posts: Fletcher joining challengers at union forum next week*; UTLA Factions Lining Up to Oust Fletcher as President; UTLA calls for a do-over in union elections over unpaid dues

UTLA President Warren Fletcher

Another name to add to the candidates for UTLA president participating in a forum next week:

UTLA President Warren Fletcher.

The event is scheduled to begin at 4 o’clock next Thursday at Thomas Starr King Middle School.

Wil Page, the school’s chapter chair, says Fletcher has agreed to join six other confirmed candidates — Kevin Mottus, Gregg Solkovits, Alex Caputo-Pearl, Bill Gafney, David Garcia and Saul Lankster.

The winner in an election process that concludes in July serves a three-year term.

Click here for the forum details.

* Adds Saul Lankster to the list of participants.