Posted on 04/30/2003 11:15:40 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Federal and local investigators raided the powerful United Teachers of Dade headquarters Tuesday morning, hauling off boxes of financial records in a quest to prove that the union's autocratic leader of four decades, Pat Tornillo, had siphoned money to pay for homes, hotel bills and other perks, sources familiar with the criminal probe said.
Investigators from the FBI and Miami-Dade's Public Corruption Task Force served a search warrant to UTD headquarters, on Northeast 22nd Street and Biscayne Boulevard, around 9:30 a.m.
''The search warrant is sealed,'' said Judy Orihuela, an FBI spokeswoman. ``No one was arrested.''
The search for evidence of possible embezzled funds comes at a vulnerable time for the South's largest union. Tornillo, 77, is facing growing criticism for his iron-fisted management, teachers are leaving the UTD and coffers are so low that a bank is threatening to seize union dues if the UTD doesn't pay off a loan.
Tornillo, a behemoth in Florida politics, was lobbying in Tallahassee when he heard of the raid.
''I have no idea why they're there,'' he said. ``I have no idea. They don't tell you what they're doing or why.''
Sources familiar with the probe said the investigation had just begun, based on a tip from within the school system and enough corroborating evidence to get the sealed search warrant. One investigator said agents had received ``a financial road map.''
Although exact details of the allegations remain sketchy, agents want to examine how properties were bought, trips paid for and monies disbursed to Tornillo allies.
''The best I can say is that it's synonymous with what happened to Donald Warshaw,'' said another source, referring to the former Miami police chief and city manager, who was sent to prison for skimming money from a children's charity to buy Florida Panther's tickets, trips to Disney World, fancy clothes and dinners.
''In this case, it's either embezzling or misusing the union funds,'' he said. ``We're just trying to get the evidence for it.''
Within hours of the raid, Florida Education Association president Maureen Dinnen asked the national teachers union to step in and manage the Miami operation. The local union provides the sole bargaining tool for 27,895 teachers and support staff.
''They need to come in here, clean everything up and get us healthy,'' said UTD secretary treasurer Shirley Johnson, who said she requested the national union after consulting with Tornillo. The exact structure of the oversight is yet to be determined.
A dozen FBI agents and Miami-Dade police detectives spent the day perusing files and carting out boxes of records. UTD officials weren't able to get back into their computers until 3:30 p.m.
''We were just as surprised as anyone when the FBI began their search,'' union spokeswoman Annette Katz said. ``We are cooperating fully with them. They are searching specific documents and computers. UTD is operating as usual.''
Authorities had initially planned to raid Tornillo's high-rise condo on Brickell Key to look for financial records they believed he kept at home. But just before investigators asked a judge for a warrant, they learned Tornillo kept another home, in Tallahassee. Since the agents did not have enough evidence to show the records would be at the Brickell address, and not Tallahassee, they opted not to seek the warrant.
''The fact that we came up with another residence, another possible receptacle of these records we're looking for, we couldn't get a warrant right then,'' another law enforcement source said.
The New-Jersey-born Tornillo was elected president of the Dade Classroom Teachers Association by a 72-vote margin in 1962. Back then, it was little more than a parochial, all-white social club.
After negotiating a merger with the black teachers bargaining unit, Tornillo broadened the power and reach, forming the United Teachers of Dade. Since then, the union has become a formidable force in Miami-Dade County, where its roster of school board candidates with rare exception wins at the polls, and in the Florida Democratic Party, where the union's blessing helped a relatively unknown lawyer, Bill McBride, beat former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno for the gubernatorial nomination.
At the same time, Tornillo's shop charges the highest teacher union dues in Florida. The rates are needed to cover $4 million in annual payroll, with a dozen administrators earning six-figure salaries. Tornillo takes home $243,000.
Critics point out that Tornillo has used the UTD's clout to reach into nontraditional union ventures such as buying real estate, running charter schools and getting involved in big-money school district contracting.
Tornillo demanded that the board give a nine-figure contract to HIP HealthCare in 1996 and again in 2001 against a consultant's advice. The company's lobbyist, and Tornillo confidant, Ric Sisser, pocketed at least $4 million on the deal. The union also ensured, as part of its contract, that only one supplemental insurance broker could come to schools and sell products to the county's largest workforce: the Public Employee Services Company.
PESCO, whose office is in the ground floor of the UTD building, was founded by a Tornillo associate, Mike Sheridan. The union owns 19,000 shares of PESCO stock. Until recently, Tornillo also sat on the board of another Sheridan company, the Fringe Benefits Management Co., which has had the School Board contract to administer supplemental insurance plans -- or flex benefits -- since the mid-1980s.
Some critics say it's all part of a pattern.
'The mismanagement and lavish lifestyle and all of the perks at the members' expense have been pretty obvious,'' said Damaris Daugherty, a frequent critic who is trying to start a rival union.
Herald staff writer Matthew I. Pinzur contributed to this report.
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