IN RE: STEFAN OSTRACH, Protestor.
Protest Decision 2005 ESD 43
Issued: December 30, 2005
OES Case No. P-05-045-120605-HQ
(See also Election Appeals Master decision 06 EAM 7)
Stephen Ostrach, a member of Local Union 206 and treasurer of the Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions slate, filed a pre-election protest pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2005-2006 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules"). He alleged that the Hoffa 2006 campaign violated the Rules by circulating slate accreditation petitions for individual candidates who are not part of a slate.
We issued our decision on this protest in Ostrach, 2005 ESD 39 (December 21, 2005), holding that candidates for whom slate accreditation petitions had been submitted could not be accredited in the absence of a valid slate declaration form signed by all listed candidates. We declined to accredit any candidate for International office on the basis of the petitions submitted by the Hoffa campaign because evidence required to establish slate formation had not been submitted. We concluded the decision as follows:
[I]f the Hoffa campaign has material to submit to support a contention that a slate has been duly formed, such material must be submitted to the Office of the Election Supervisor by 5:00 p.m. on December 30, 2005 (with copies to be provided to the protestor), together with any argument on why such material complies with the Rules and supports the requested accreditation of slate candidates.
No appeal was taken from this decision.
Thereafter, on December 23, 2005, the Hoffa campaign submitted an illegible slate declaration form that it said listed twenty candidates but was signed by only nineteen. We issued a supplemental decision, 2005 ESD 41 (December 27, 2005), once again declining to accredit the listed candidates because the slate declaration form 1) admittedly listed Tyson Johnson as a candidate but was not signed by him, 2) did not identify and was not signed by a campaign treasurer qualified under the Rules, and 3) was illegible. No appeal was taken from this decision.
On December 29, 2005, the Hoffa campaign submitted a series of faxed slate declaration forms, each listing twenty candidates, no single form signed by all candidates, but each candidate's signature appearing on at least one form. Based on this submission, the campaign states that it has satisfied the requirements of Article VIII concerning slate formation and requests that the candidates for whom it submitted slate accreditation petitions on December 15 be accredited.
We issue this second supplemental decision to address the campaign's request.
Findings of Fact
The Hoffa campaign submitted twenty-one slate declaration forms on December 29. Each of these forms is legible and lists twenty candidates in the same order.1 Further, each form identifies the campaign treasurer as Mary Karen Lankford, states that she is a member of Local Union 614, and bears her signature.
All forms leave blank the space labeled "Name of Slate (Optional)." All forms show the number "20" in the space labeled "Number of Candidates on Slate (Required)."
All of the forms bear the signatures of James P. Hoffa, C. Thomas Keegel, Fred Gegare, Ken Hall, Jack Cipriani, and Chuck Mack. Six of the twenty-one forms bear the signatures only of these candidates and appear to be identical in all respects.
The signatures of the following candidates appear on at least one of the remaining fifteen forms the campaign submitted: Randy Cammack, Jim Santangelo, Carroll Haynes, Ralph Taurone, Robert Bouvier, Tom Fraser, Don McGill, Pat Flynn, Walt Lytle, John Murphy, Tyson Johnson, Ken Wood, Al Hobart, and Henry Perry.
Analysis
Article VIII, Section 1 of the Rules provides in relevant part:
(b) To form a slate, there shall be mutual consent between and among all candidates running on the slate. Such mutual consent shall be evidenced by the signing of a declaration by all members of the slate, giving the position that each candidate seeks and the name, if any, of the slate to be formed. Slate declaration forms … for International Officer nominations and elections shall be submitted to the Election Supervisor. Amended declarations may be submitted adding additional candidates, provided that the deadlines specified in Subsection (c) below are met.
(c) … In the case of International Officer nominations and elections, such slate declarations shall be filed at the earliest possible date but in no event later than August 31, 2006. In the case of International Officer candidates, the slate declaration shall include the designation of a treasurer for the slate. The slate treasurer must be a member of the Union, but need not be a candidate.
"The purpose of the slate declaration form is to ensure that there is indeed 'mutual consent between and among all candidates running on a slate' to their doing so." McNeely, 2001 EAD 254 (March 22, 2001), aff'd, 01 EAM 55 (April 10, 2001).
We hold that an unnamed slate of twenty candidates headed by candidate Hoffa has been duly formed in accordance Article VIII, Section 1 of the Rules because each of the candidates has, by his signature, consented to join a slate comprised of the twenty candidates listed on the slate declaration form. Although no single document contains the signatures of all twenty candidates, a slate will be formed under the Rules where a combination of slate declaration forms evidences mutual consent of all listed candidates to form a slate. Mohawk-Davis, 2001 EAD 117 (January 30, 2001); Busalacchi, 2001 EAD 271 (March 27, 2001). The Hoffa campaign has done so here.
We also hold, because of the duly formed slate, that Hoffa slate members for whom sufficient slate accreditation petition signatures have been submitted will be certified as accredited candidates under the Rules.
In reaching this conclusion, we note that the Hoffa campaign did not submit the only evidence acceptable under the Rules of the mutual consent essential to forming a slate among the twenty listed candidates to the Office of the Election Supervisor until after it submitted slate accreditation petitions to our office. We further note that Article X, Section 2(b) permits "[m]embers of a slate formed in accordance with Article VIII of the Rules [to] circulate a single petition for some or all of the members of the slate." We decline to construe the Rules to require that slates be formed before slate accreditation petitions are submitted or, for that matter, before they are first circulated. Instead, so long as a slate, even one formed after petitions are submitted, includes all of the candidates whose names appear on timely submitted slate accreditation petitions, we will accept the slate accreditation petitions and afford the candidates the rights they may obtain via petition. The purpose of accreditation petitions is to demonstrate that a candidate - or in the case of slate accreditation petitions, a slate of candidates - enjoys substantial support among the membership. Each member who signs a slate accreditation petition indicates his/her support for a slate that includes the candidates listed on the petition. The member's signature on a slate accreditation petition is of no value for accreditation purposes if a slate of the candidates listed on the petition is never formed. However, a slate formed after the date members have signed petitions that includes all candidates listed on the slate accreditation petitions is consistent with the representation the candidates made when they jointly solicited signatures on the petition and with the members' intent in signing the petitions for those candidates jointly. Those petitions will be recognized as valid to support a request for pre-convention accreditation.
Finally, we address the fact that each of the slate petitions submitted by the Hoffa campaign bears a slate name that has not been adopted by the slate the Hoffa campaign has now formed. Thus, petitions circulated in the East region identified the slate as "Hoffa - East," those circulated in the South region identified the slate as "Hoffa - South," and so on. No slate bearing any such name has been formed.
Slates are given "a wide breadth in the selection of slate names, so long as the name is not chosen to materially mislead the voters." Owens, P628 (March 28, 1996); Thompson, 2001 EAD 232 (March 12, 2001). Each slate name specified on the accreditation petitions included the name of the lead candidate on the now formed slate; likewise, each slate name identified the region in which the accreditation petition was circulated. Although the slate eventually formed has not been named, the facts presented here demonstrate that the names appearing on the slate accreditation petitions were not materially misleading.
For these reasons, we conclude that the submitted slate declaration forms comply with the Rules. Accordingly, we GRANT the Hoffa campaign's request and have today issued certification of candidate accreditation for each of the candidates for whom the campaign submitted slate accreditation petitions on December 15, 2005, with the exception of Henry Perry, for whom insufficient accreditation signatures were submitted.
Any interested party not satisfied with this determination may request a hearing before the Election Appeals Master within two (2) working days of receipt of this decision. The parties are reminded that, absent extraordinary circumstances, no party may rely upon evidence that was not presented to the Office of the Election Supervisor in any such appeal. Requests for a hearing shall be made in writing, shall specify the basis for the appeal and shall be served upon:
Kenneth Conboy
Election Appeals Master
Latham & Watkins
Suite 1000
885 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10022
Fax: (212) 751-4864
Copies of the request for hearing must be served upon the parties, as well as upon the Election Supervisor for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 1725 K Street, N.W., Suite 1400, Washington, D.C. 20007-5135, all within the time prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
Richard W. Mark
Election Supervisor
cc: Kenneth Conboy
2005 ESD 43
1 The candidates are listed in the following order: James P. Hoffa, C. Thomas Keegel, Randy Cammack, Fred Gegare, Ken Hall, Carroll Haynes, Ralph Taurone, Robert Bouvier, Tom Fraser, Don McGill, Pat Flynn, Walt Lytle, Jack Cipriani, John Murphy, Tyson Johnson, Ken Wood, Al Hobart, Chuck Mack, Jim Santangelo, and Henry Perry.
DISTRIBUTION LIST (BY EMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED):
Patrick J. Szymanski
General Counsel
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001
pszymanski@teamster.org
Bradley T. Raymond
Finkel, Whitefield, Selik, Raymond, Ferrara & Feldman
32300 Northwestern Highway
Suite 200
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
braymond@fwslaw.com
David J. Hoffa, Esq.
Hoffa 2006
30300 Northwestern Highway, Suite 324
Farmington Hills, MI 48834
David@hoffapllc.com
Barbara Harvey
645 Griswold Street
Suite 3060
Detroit, MI 48226
barbaraharvey@comcast.net
Ken Paff
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
P.O. Box 10128
Detroit, MI 48210
ken@tdu.org
Stefan Ostrach
1863 Pioneer Parkway East, #217
Springfield, OR 97477-3907
saostrach@gmail.com
Judith Brown Chomsky
P.O. Box 29726
Elkins Park, PA 19027
jchomsky@igc.org
Steven R. Newmark
Office of the Election Supervisor
1725 K Street, NW Suite 1400
Washington, DC 20005
snewmark@ibtvote.org
Jeffrey Ellison
510 Highland Avenue, #325
Milford, MI 48381
EllisonEsq@aol.com