PEF members choose new leaders By SHERRY HALBROOK


The more than 12,500 PEF members who voted in PEF’s 2015 triennial elections elected Wayne Spence and Kevin Hintz to the union’s two top posts. Spence will be the ninth president of PEF.


The incumbents retain their offices until July 31. The new PEF officers and Executive Board members will serve three- year terms that end in July 2018. The new statewide officers will be sworn in at PEF headquarters in Latham Monday, August 3. Those who won seats on PEF’s Executive Board are customarily given the oath of office at the board’s first meeting following August 1. An exact date and place have not yet been chosen for that meeting.


Spence, a state parole officer from Long Island and PEF vice president, was elected president, unseating incumbent Susan M. Kent. Hintz, a state environmental engineer and PEF Region 1 coordinator from the Buffalo area, unseated incumbent PEF Secretary-Treasurer Carlos J. Garcia for that post.


Ballots were scanned and counted June 23 by the American Arbitration Association in Manhattan. The election rules call for an automatic recount whenever the difference in votes between the candidates is less than 2 percent, which it was in the race for president. The recounts for this and other very tight races were held July 2 at PEF headquarters in Latham.


Spence won by a margin of 127 votes: 6,172 to 6,045.


Spence headed the Coalition of Union Professionals (COUP) ticket, which dominated the elections for all but one of the statewide offices. Incumbent PEF Trustee Maureen Kellman was the only member of the NY Union Proud party to prevail in the statewide races. The turnout was relatively low, especially for a year in which the incumbent president was opposed. A total of 12,524 members voted this year, 24.6 percent of 50,980 eligible voters. Three years ago, when the previous triennial election was held, 32 percent of the eligible members voted.


This year, although Kent and Garcia received the majority of votes in 10 of the union’s 12 regions, Spence and Hintz received so many votes (more than 3,200) in the union’s largest region, Region 8 (the greater Capital District), that they cancelled out the incumbents’ narrower victories in other regions. Spence carried Region 4 (Syracuse) and Region 8, and Hintz carried his home turf, Region, 1, and Region 8.


Page 4 — The Communicator July/August 2015 VPs and trustees


Elected to PEF’s three vice president positions were COUP candidates Peter Banks, Nikki Brate and Adreina Adams. Banks is a nurse at SUNY Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse and is the incumbent coordinator of PEF Region 4. Brate is a state information technology manager at the state Department of Financial Services in Albany and is the incumbent Region 8 coordinator. Adams is a parole officer in New York and has been active in her PEF division. In addition to Kellman, Maddie Shannon-Roberts and Sarah Lauser, who both ran on the COUP ticket, were elected PEF trustees. Kellman is an actuary at the state Insurance Fund in New York City. Shannon-Roberts is a disability analyst at the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance in Troy, and Lauser is an information technology specialist at the Office of the State Comptroller in Albany.


Regional coordinators


Winners of the seven contested races for PEF regional coordinator are: Region 1 (Buffalo) – Rocco Brindisi; Region 2 (Hornell) – Andrew Puleo; Region 4 (Syracuse) – Charles McRorie; Region 5 (Binghamton) – David Dubofsky; Region 8 (Capital District) – Michael Blue; Region 9 (Poughkeepsie) – Vivian Street; and Region 10 (Manhattan and the Bronx) – Sheik Nabijohn. Only McRorie and Blue ran on the COUP slate. All of the other winners in the coordinator elections were on the NY Union Proud slate.


Five candidates for coordinator in the other PEF regions ran unopposed. They are: Region 3 (Rochester) – John Prince; Region 6 (Utica) – Jeanette St. Mary; Region 7 (Plattsburgh) – Edward Snow; Region 11 (Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island) – Jemma Marie-Hanson; and Region 12 (Nassau and Suffolk) -- Nora Geiser. St. Mary and Geiser ran on the NY Union Proud ticket, while Prince, Snow and Marie-Hanson were independent candidates.


Executive Board seats Thirty-five members of the PEF Executive Board were elected to three- year terms. In one case (state Insurance Fund, Seat 210), where three candidates ran for the same seat and no one received a majority of the ballots cast, a runoff election will be held between the top two candidates (Patricia Mason and Kevin Dobies). In addition, 71 candidates for board seats were unopposed. And in a few


twitter.com/nyspef


cases, no candidates were certified to fill certain seats. Nominees will be sought for those seats in special elections later this year.


Board seats filled in the June balloting: • Seat 5 (Comptroller) – Lyndon Jones; • Seat 7 (Comptroller) – Alphonso Boyd; • Seat 10 (Financial Services, Banking) – Suzette Grant;


• Seat 20 (Corrections and Community Supervision) – Cynthia Hahn;


• Seat 25 (Corrections and Community Supervision) – David Porter;


• Seat 30 (Corrections and Community Supervision) – Steve Drake;


• Seat 48 (Corrections and Community Supervision) – Paul Rigby;


• Seat 49 (Corrections and Community Supervision) – Darryl Stevenson; • Seat 85 (SUNY) – Susan Murphy; • Seat 105 (Environmental Conservation) – Gina Fanelli;


• Seat 125 (General Services) – Anthony Nuciforo;


• Seat 160 (Housing and Community Renewal) – Edward Diaz;


• Seat 169 (multiple Executive Dept. agencies) – Margaret Jackson; • Seat 174 (Information Technology) – Lisa Walker;


• Seat 175 (Information Technology) – James Desso;


Seat 215 (Insurance Fund) – Olubunmi Ojugbele;


• Seat 217 (Insurance Fund) – Radhakrishna Mohan;


• Seat 230 (Labor) – Heather Gaeta; • Seat 245 (Labor) – Edward Swierkowski;


Yasus;


Nannery; Harris; Lefler; Davey;


• Seat 255 (Attorney General) – Albert • Seat 290 (Mental Hygiene) – Timothy • Seat 295 (Mental Hygiene) – Karin Seat 300 (Mental Hygiene) – Teresa Seat 305 (Mental Hygiene) – Virginia • Seat 315 (Mental Hygiene) – Jodi


Nettleton;


• Seat 380 (Mental Hygiene) – Lesley Williamson;


• Seat 410 (Mental Hygiene) – Jose Rodriguez;


DeSilva; Greco;


Davis; twitter.com/susankentpef PEF Information Line: 1-800-553-2445


• Seat 450 (Mental Hygiene) – Sharon • Seat 455 (Mental Hygiene) – Germaine


• Seat 465 (Tax and Finance) – Steven Nawrocki;


• Seat 470 (Tax and Finance) – Conrad


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32