SAEA Santa Ana Teacher’s Union Election Jam Down

On Orange Juice Blog’s most popular posting thread about SAUSD corruption  (Link) , the subject of the local teacher’s union elections has been a topic of discussion.

Here’s  the list of candidates and the positions for which they are running according to the SAEA (Teacher’s Union) Link.

OJ wanted to get information posted about the candidates, their positions and their statements for the upcoming election, so I was tasked to request that information.  I posted a general  website invitation of, “Candidates, post your stuff at OJ!”.

The 3 presidential candidates all responded by posting statements of intent.  They are, in no particular order, Patricial O’Neil, Robert Chavez and Susan Mercer.  I think they all showed good intention and leadership in sharing their views with our readership. Good on you guys!

Now for the sad news.   We contacted SAEA Vice President, Jeffrey Goldberg who is the webmaster at the SAEA website and asked for the list of all candidates and their statements, so that we could add that information to the discussions.  It wasn’t ready yet.  He gave me a notification when it was assembled at SAEA and OJ reposted it all (post # 603).

When we requested that ALL of the candidates be sent a little notice by the union officials who have those private emails for notification, Jeff started getting all  faux legaleze and basically said that union officals cannot practice freedom of speech on blogs AND there is another person in charge of elections.  Not him.

I asked him to forward my request to the Elections officer, Maureen Doughtery.   No response back from him after a couple more attempts.

So I used public information and notified SAEA Grivance Chair Jennifer Isensee – Jennifer also wants to take up a second position of Secretary during the elections – that she could post the speech she made at the last union meeting up on our website.  No response.

I also notified Scott Miller who is the SAEA ChalkTalk editor- who also wants to take up the second position of Treasurer-  if he’d like to post his speech on OJ.  No response.

I was given SAEA Elections Officer Maureen Doughtery’s email and I requested directly to her to please notify ALL candidates about our free public forum so that they could choose to post here if they wished.  No response back.

If  this is the typical treatment from the union “leaders” for simple information requests, then what happens when teachers really NEED help?   Man, you teachers are SCREWED.    You pay about a thousand bucks a year for this kind of “Leadership”.  LMAO!  You are all idiots to let this group of disorganized cowards “lead you”!    But this story gets better…..

Just yesterday, Grievance Chair and Candidate for the position of SAEA Secretary, Jennifer Isensee, sent out an email notice to ALL SCHOOL SITE REPRESENTATIVES to vote for her and her list of suggested candidates.  And hurry up and vote early and tell all of the school site members to hurry up and vote.  Huh?  Is that even allowed?  It doesn’t even make any sense that she did that!  This election smells rotten and unethical right out of the gate.

Let’s recap:

  • A SAEA Vice President is the union’s webmaster and is a regular reader of OJ Blog, but suddenly gets writer’s block in response to basic informational requests.
  • Scott and Jennifer already have prominent leadership positions in SAEA but are both running for SECOND JOBS on the board giving the appearance that a special club is being run by a very few at the expense of the larger membership body’s best interests.
  • Elections Officer, Maureen Doughtery is missing in action.
  • A paid position staffer who is supposed to be representing members in grievances, Jennifer Isensee, is now the defacto Elections Chair AND political lobbyist for a select group of cronies in an email sent to all site reps on a Saturday morning.
  • Susan Mercer gets writer’s block right after she was asked some blog questions.  Nothing wrong with that -she gave plenty of good informational posts and showed good intent from the get go.  Unfortunately Susan’s being “endorsed” in secret emails priviledged out by Ms. Isensee.  And there’s a stench to it.
  • The only Presidential Candidate who is still posting on our OJ thread in response to questions is Patricia O’Neil.  And she seems to be under constant attacks by a swarm of anonymous posters who seem to have a very good grasp of what the union is all about.  Union Hack Attacks.
  • This is just an old-fashioned election Jam Down by the clowns that got you teachers multiple year pay cuts, massive layoff notices and drastically more expensive health care coverage going forward for the members who actually escaped getting laid off.
  • Teachers who are paying $1k per year to this group of union incompetents are the biggest fools of all.  You’re screwed to allow this crap to happen.  And you pay them to do it month after month.

This year’s SAEA elections may be won by this small group of cronies, but I am predicting that it will not be “Business as Usual” for them, going forward.  SAUSD corruption thrives with the active help of SAEA officers and our readers are paying attention this time around.  Do yourselves a favor: tell your friends!


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