FL Teachers' Union paid for chief's opulent lifestyle - $2,000-a-night suite raised red flags

Miami Herald ^ | May 18,2003 | MANNY GARCIA AND JOE MOZINGO jmozingo@herald.com

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I won't breathe a word. But I won't hold my breath either. If it is true, it will be one step on a long road back to education in America. I wish them the very best.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Wow. Florida freepers, this is amazing - teacher's union crook being investigated by the feds - details of his spending exposed by the Miami Herald. Glory be.

gonzo, when you're well enough, here's a treat.

CW, thank you for this post! annie, thanks for the ping. (^:

[EGPWS]

TEACHER'S are too stupid to do anything but complain about Bush for their money problems.

Ah yes, but isn't it a commedable field to be in? If your a teacher your the backbone of our country, right? However if you don't push the political machine to help drive Dem's into office then you are worthless as a teacher.

[EGPWS]

If this guy was a Republican in Texas, the national media would be in a feeding frenzy over this story. As it stands, however, apparently another corrupt Florida Democrat isn't much news...

I hope your not shocked by it. Gees, I bet that if ALL the Dem's in a state house jumped borders illegally to stiffle a vote that the press wouldn't even cover that! Although, who in their right mind would even think that such a thing could even happen?

[NautiNurse]

Oh...this is delicious! Thanks for the post and the ping. When will they ever learn? Any update on the status of the Teacher's Union hocked office building?

btw--does anyone recall the Miami-Dade United Way crook who was paid $250K to leave their position for similar behavior 10+ years ago?

[Alamo-Girl]

Volley bump!

[floriduh voter]

My only response is "How long has this been going on?" Further, I bet he's not the only one robbing the union piggy bank. If this turns out to be really damaging, it may hurt the credibility of the TU re: upcoming 2004 elections. Time will tell. Or, teachers will decide it's not worth it to be in the union and drop out.

[floriduh voter]

I like your RICO idea. Drudge lives in S. Florida. Sometimes he goes for crook stories. Sounds like they were kinda top heavy with six figure administrators down there.

I also noticed that this guy's picture is in the dictionary under sugar daddy. Sugar daddys need to bring it in on home to keep the trophy wife happy, not that we need a motive for violating federal laws.

[mewzilla]

Jusy hope they keep digging. And when the Feds are done there, maybe they can come up our way and clean up the mess in NYS.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Hi, FV! This one's big. With so many Feds handling terrorist threats, perhaps Freepers could offer to check the Union books? (^:

Dealing w/ the lying Rats re. the war is a full time job right now, but we can't let this story disappear.

Expose the teacher's unions and we may save the nation.

Bookmarked.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

I agree with you. This story reeeally must stay current.

So...in light of that, I do hereby bump this back to life with the following:

The Investigators: School Dollars Squandered On No-Bid Contracts
Unruh: 'No-Bid Contracts" Lead To Waste

POSTED: 4:27 p.m. EST October 28, 2002
MIAMI -- Channel 10 investigator Jilda Unruh says that it looks like the Miami-Dade public school district isn't very good at math.

Unruh discovered that the rules governing contracts with the school system are pretty simple: any contract worth $10,000 or more, must go to the board for approval. The problem? The school district isn't very good at basic math, when it comes to tracking contracts under $10,000, according to Unruh.

Unruh: We asked the Miami-Dade school district for all "no bid contracts," and got a pretty small pile. Another stack is made up of a computer printout of nearly $2 million worth contracts $6,000 and under, which require no form of committee or board approval. What we found when we did the math was how often the district doles out nickel and dime contracts to vendors, which add up to a lot more than the $10,000 benchmark for board scrutiny. A total of 20 hotels, restaurants, resorts and a country club were paid by the Miami-Dade public schools between Jan. 1, 2001, and March 30, 2002, for district functions ranging from workshops, training and banquets, to conferences, seminars and retreats...

Unruh: "You're telling me there's no place in this district that 40 to 55 people could have met besides having to go to Don Shula's hotel and golf resort?"

Villafana: "Well, no, I'm not telling you that there isn't a place. I'm just telling you that perhaps it didn't work out for them."

Unruh: Amazingly, it didn't work out for them four times between January and September of 2001.

Perez said, "Because they're during school time, and therefore, there's not room to have them during school time. But during school times, people should be at school working and taking care of business..."
http://www.click10.com/news/1744113/detail.html


The Investigators: Politics Of Picking Healthcare Providers
Jilda Unruh, Channel 10 Investigator
POSTED: 6:54 p.m. EDT August 21, 2001
http://www.click10.com/mia/news/theinvestigators/stories/theinvestigators-92812820010821-170831.html

The Investigators: Pat Tornillo's Links To Companies
Jilda Unruh, Channel 10 Investigator
POSTED: 2:24 p.m. EDT August 22, 2001
http://www.click10.com/news/929352/detail.html

Posted on Sun, Oct. 06, 2002
Longtime union leader's empire facing challenges from dissenting teachers,
others
By CHARLES SAVAGE
http://www.broward.com/mld/miami/news/4214582.htm

EducationNews.org
Monday February 18, 2002
Teacher's for Better Education
Dissent in the Ranks
Ira J. Paul
...At the top of the list was none other than Pat Tornillo with a salary of more than $209,000 a year! It also revealed that a dozen UTD staffers were paid six figure salaries ranging from $100,000 to as much as $206,000 a year! These salaries come at the expense of teachers and school employees who pay dues to the union. In fact, average teacher salaries in Dade County are only about $44,000 a year. Teachers are charged about $850 in union dues to pay the salaries of Tornillo and his inner circle of six-figure income lieutenants.
http://home.att.net/~tbe/EducationNews3.htm

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Great post gmoapbcFL!

$6 Billion Crumbling Schools***''Were there problems and difficulties? Of course there were,'' said John Pennington, whose office manages construction litigation for the school system. ``But the amount of things that didn't get done or didn't get done properly . . . is very small in the scheme of things.''

But at dozens of aging campuses, administrators eager to focus on the finer points of curriculum respond instead to roof leaks, busted plumbing and the needs of teachers forced into classrooms too tiny for creative teaching, too obsolete for technology. And crowding is worse than ever.

''I have kids who are eating lunch on the floor,'' said Principal Victor Lopez at Miami Senior High, where the cafeteria holds just 450 students. Enrollment this year tops 3,200. ``The district will tell you that they're going to take care of it, but we're still waiting.''***

[floriduh voter]

Hi, ragtime, It sounds like something for our fabu State Attorney General Charlie Crist. For all I know, he lurks here. Charlie Crist is serious about fraud and abuse. I think he's a great AG as compared to Butterworth. Crist would make a real good Governor someday too.

Let's cross our fingers that Florida's AG looks into this because we've never had a such a take charge AG before.

And, then all the school systems are complaining that they can't keep teachers' aides, etc. They should blame their unions who are just set up to boost the DNC and get perks for the top tier. The elites get all the treats.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Hey, FV, I hope AG Crist takes on the teachers union fraud. It's dangerous work, but so important.

Perhaps he will revisit the "class size" amendment pushed by PfAW, NAACP, Dem. politicians and the teachers unions. The only Floridians who will benefit will be those who rake in the union dues - and the DNC - from teachers union electioneering and GOTV drives. Crooks.

My local Congresswoman simply asks everyone who calls complaining about a lack of funds for any project, or complaints about the lack of funds for existing schools, "Did you vote for the "class-size" amendment?" No money for other projects? Talk to the crooks who pushed the class-size fraud - including the Florida press.

Go, AG Charlie Crist!

[floriduh voter]

Crist was the Education Secretary before he was state AG. I'm sure he is already familiar with the teachers' union in Florida. Someone would have to make a formal complaint to their office for them to investigate. I don't want to wear out my welcome up in Tally as they've already helped me. lol

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

You know...I am wondering if O'Reilly would light a fire under this? He's always looking for a new cash of corruption to expose and dismember, right? And wasn't he also a teacher in the Miami/Dade school district, at one time?

I wonder if Mr. O' has heard about these recent events? What do you all think?

[Libertarian444]

I hear ya. Someone needs to send this story to the St Petersburg Times. If I read one more story/editorial (one in the same, really) in that leftist rag about how Gov. Bush/Charlie Byrd/Republicans are taking money away from education, I'm going to scream. There's plenty of money for education!!

Someone should go into every single school district and interview every single public school employee from top to bottom. If their job doesn't do anything to help a child learn how to read, write, do arithmetic or prepare them to become a productive member of our capitalist society, they should be FIRED ON THE SPOT!! Amazing how much money they'd find to educate our chirren....

[Cincinatus' Wife]

And wasn't he also a teacher in the Miami/Dade school district, at one time? I wonder if Mr. O' has heard about these recent events? What do you all think?

Yes he was. I think he'd be perfect to rail against this fraud called public education.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Bottom Line for Teachers Unions***That explains why the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, rarely uses the word ''union'' when describing itself. Go to the NEA web site, for example, and click on ''About NEA.'' Nowhere in the long description does the word ''union'' appear.

But however much the NEA and its affiliates may try to disguise it, they are union to the core. Indeed, they are among the most successful unions in US history. The Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern observes in ''Breaking Free,'' his engrossing new book on why so many public schools are dysfunctional, that ''teacher unions now dominate the American trade union movement, accounting for almost 50 percent of all unionized government employees and more than 20 percent of all union members.''

Teachers unions ''cast a giant shadow over American politics,'' Stern writes, donating tens of millions of dollars directly to Democratic candidates and supporting them indirectly through independent media buys, union-paid campaign workers, and in-kind services. And this massive investment in political influence is supplemented by lavish advertising campaigns. I wrote on Sunday about the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which budgets more than $2.3 million a year for radio and TV commercials that advocate more public spending on education.

The unions do not spend all this money out of the goodness of their hearts. Their goals are not better schools or improved student performance. What they want is more income for themselves, and teachers unions only collect more income when public-school payrolls increase. That is why they constantly clamor for hiring more teachers.

And what they clamor for, they usually get. According to the Department of Education, the number of public school teachers in Massachusetts soared from 33,629 in 1991 to 70,236 in 2002, a 108 percent rise. During roughly the same period, public school enrollment in Massachusetts grew by only 17 percent. The explosion in teacher payrolls may not have led to better grades or more effective schools, but it certainly gave a boost to the union's bottom line.

Teachers unions, like all unions, want to make money and amass power. Those are the motives behind everything they say and do. They're not in business ''for the children.'' They're in business for themselves. ***

[kcvl]

Pat Tornillo