Posted on 06/01/2003 12:58:14 PM PDT by sarcasm
he president of the teachers' union in Miami-Dade County, Fla., is under federal investigation, union officials said on Friday, after reports that he had spent $350,000 in union money on a way of life that included $175 python-print pajamas from Neiman Marcus and a $49,715 three-week vacation to Australia, New Zealand and California.
The union official, Pat Tornillo, who has been president of United Teachers of Dade for more than two decades, took an unpaid leave of absence after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the union's office in late April.
Union officials said that Mr. Tornillo, who earned $243,000 in salary and benefits, used a union credit card to pay for jewelry, antiques, groceries, suits and a visit to a California spa. In addition, union documents show that he spent eight nights at a $2,000-a-night suite at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami, just 300 yards away from his apartment.
"It's a real mess," said Miles Woolley, who teaches drafting at Southwest Miami Senior High School. "A lot of teachers would like to see him in jail."
The Miami Herald first reported the investigation of Mr. Tornillo, 77.
Last week, Mr. Tornillo issued a statement that did not mention the federal inquiry but asked that teachers and the community "reserve for me the sense of fairness and presumption of innocence that our system of justice guarantees everyone."
"I love this union," Mr. Tornillo said. "I am very proud of our accomplishments. Now I have a personal battle to fight. I am determined to win that fight and clear my name."
This is the second scandal to rock the American Federation of Teachers in the last year. In January, the union assumed control of its chapter in Washington, D.C., after the F.B.I. accused the chapter's president and two other officials of stealing $5 million from the union. Government officials said the misspending began in 1995 and involved buying electronics, furs and clothes.
A lawsuit brought by the parent union asserted that Barbara Bullock, president of the Washington Teachers' Union, made personal charges of more than $1.8 million on union credit cards and embezzled $381,000 more by writing checks to herself and others. Ms. Bullock, who resigned last fall, has denied any wrongdoing.
A federal grand jury is continuing its investigations, but so far two people, Ms. Bullock's chauffeur and hairdresser, have pleaded guilty to money-laundering.
Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said: "I'm totally sickened by this stuff. We never had anything like this before. We have been for all these years a totally clean union."
Ms. Feldman said the union's executive council decided at a meeting on Thursday in Albany to increase the financial accountability of the union's locals. Each local is now expected to hire an auditing firm and to make copies available to the parent union and to local members.
Under the executive council's new rule, if the parent union does not receive copies of an audit, it will again urge the local's executive board to order an outside audit. If the board still does not hire an auditor, the council will inform every member of the local that the parent union believes there is a problem and will send in internal investigators.
"I am determined to clean this up, to rebuild these locals," Ms. Feldman said. "We aren't going to tolerate this in our union." The union has placed the Miami-Dade County and Washington locals into trusteeship.
United Teachers of Dade represents 35,000 teachers and paraprofessionals in collective bargaining, but only about 15,000 of them belong to the union. About 500 teachers have quit the union since the F.B.I. raid.
"All this just gives labor a terrible black eye," said Charles Craver, a labor expert at George Washington University, who said unions and corporations alike needed stricter accounting procedures "When workers decide whether they're going to vote for unionization, this is the type of thing that has a long-lasting negative impact."
Mark Richard, the trustee in Miami-Dade County, said it was unclear whether Mr. Tornillo had repaid any money to the union. He said it was hard to determine many details about Mr. Tornillo's financial dealings because the F.B.I. had removed so many records.
The union's credit card statements, according to The Miami Herald, show that Mr. Tornillo used the union's credit card to charge $978.26 for souvenirs in Thailand, $1,441 for suits in Hong Kong and $3,900 for a necklace and gold ring in Carmel, Calif. The statements also show that in Queenstown, New Zealand, Mr. Tornillo and his wife spent $1,339 at art galleries. The statements show that in 2001 the Tornillos used a union credit card to fly to Cambodia, Thailand, India and Switzerland for a two-week vacation that cost more than $27,000.
Mr. Richard, the trustee, said: "We believe that justice will be done, and we hope what they're saying is not true, but if it is true, the federal authorities will do what they see fit."
He has brought in a team of auditors and accountants to help protect the local's assets. But he said the local's finances were a shambles, with so much spent on expenses, salaries and a new $20 million headquarters that the local had trouble meeting a $300,000 insurance premium for member benefits.
"The financial crisis to this union is real," Mr. Richard said. "At the end of the day, the A.F.T. wants to right the ship and hand it back to its owners — the teachers and the paraprofessionals."
Well who wouldn't? Great salary and an unlimited expense account.
That is for the court and the jury to do, not the members and the community. They are free to call it what it is.
No wonder they want to force every child to stay in public schools.
More teachers, more dues.
What's this guy talking about? It gives high-ranking union officials a black eye. The members of this union dutifully paid their dues. The head-honcho treated it like his personal piggy bank. Shame on him.
-- while Tornillo quietly robs the teachers, the taxpayers and the students.
 |
| Pat L. Tornillo, Jr. |
| Ph (305) 854-0220 |
| Fax (305) 856-2285 |
| Pat_t@utofd.com |
| Contributor | Occupation | Date | Amount | Recipient |
| TORNILLO, PAT MIAMI, FL 33129 |
UNITED TEACHERS OF D | 6/8/2000 | $200 | Democratic National Cmte |
2002 cycle data downloaded from FEC on April 28, 2003. Date of request: June 1, 2003 2002 cycle data downloaded from FEC on April 28, 2003. Date of request: June 1, 2003
Contributor
Occupation
Date
Amount
Recipient
UNITED TEACHERS OF DADE-TIGER-COPE
MIAMI, FL 33129
11/30/1999
$4,000
DCCC/Non-Federal Account 2
Stop! I'm already breaking down in tears here.
His lawyer will have Tornillo's MDs testify that this poor 77-year-old racketeer couldn't possibly survive even a light prison sentence. You can already hear the wails of sympathy as the jury passes the kleenex box.
This paragraph actually means that nothing will ever come of this investigation, no one will face any charges.
After all, these are liberal democrat, union mafia members we're talking about.
Yeah, like Enron hired Arthur Anderson. I'll bet all those dues payers will sleep real soundly, knowing that their money is under such watchful stewardship.
She may have meant to say, "We've never been caught before".
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