Just as I suspected: Emma Leheny is back as CTA chief counsel!

CAROLYN DOGGETT AND PRISCILLA WINSLOW OUT, EMMA LEHENY IN

CTA head counsel Emma Leheny

The California Teachers Association's website has (once again) been changed to say, "The Legal Services Division is directed by Chief Counsel Emma Leheny."

Emma Leheny recently stepped away from the helm of CTA's Legal Services, apparently during some kind of a power play by Priscilla Winslow (perhaps with the assistance of former head counsel Beverly Tucker and her supporter, executive director Carolyn Doggett?)

It looks like Governor Jerry Brown stepped in to help. He appointed Priscilla Winslow to PERB, the Public Employee Relations Board. Now that Winslow has gone to PERB, Emma Leheny has resumed her position.

Why do I think Executive Director Carolyn Doggett may have supported Priscilla Winslow?

First, the two have worked together as Executive Director and Associate Director of CTA for the past couple of years.

Second, Doggett has a very long history of supporting her cronies, such as former chief counsel Beverly Tucker, even when they were engaged in illegal actions. Doggett, Tucker and Winslow are the power trio of the old guard. I'm sure Beverly Tucker's political connections are still strong. Emma Leheny obviously had trouble with the old guard, even though she has worked with them on several cases over the years, before coming to work for CTA. (I don't consider people like Dean Vogel, the president, to have much power at all, so I don't blame Vogel for the tumult. Besides, he's a nice guy.)

Third, Carolyn Doggett is finally going to release her grip on the Executive Director position at CTA. She's retiring in June 2013. I suspect she wanted to leave her cronies in charge.

Fourth, Emma Leheny and the old guard were bound to come into conflict simply because Emma has spent her entire legal career in the real world, not in the cocoon of CTA, where all the favored cronies are protected from consequences of wrongdoing by the enormous power of CTA. In fact, at CTA ethics is defined as not blowing the whistle, no matter what happens. More than one official has told me it would be unethical to report wrongdoing, including crimes. Emma is more aware of the threats presented by the real world to lazy, overconfident union lawyers. Carolyn Doggett

Carolyn Doggett announces retirement
California Educator
Volume 17 Issue 4
December 2012

CTA Executive Director Carolyn Doggett announced she will retire in June 2013, closing a 45-year career in public education...

Attorney Priscilla Winslow of CTA appointed to California PERB board

Update Feb. 19, 2013:Emma Leheny is back as head counsel at CTA!

In a surprising twist, it seems that soon after replacing Emma Leheny as the top person in the legal division of CTA (California Teachers Association), Priscilla Winslow is herself leaving CTA to become a member of the Public Employee Relations Board. Unless, that is, PERB is going to give up all pretense of being independent of CTA, and is planning to have a CTA lawyer actually make decisions for PERB.

There is actually no evidence that Emma Leheny left CTA, only that she left the position of head counsel.

Eric Banks has also been appointed to the PERB board.

GOVERNOR BROWN ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENTS
2-1-2013
CA.gov

SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments.

...Priscilla Winslow, 60, of Berkeley, has been appointed to the California Public Employment Relations Board, where she has served as legal advisor since 2012.

She was assistant chief counsel at the California Teachers Association from 1996 to 2012. Winslow was managing partner at the Law Offices of Winslow and Fassler from 1988 to 1996 and was solo practitioner at the Law Offices of Priscilla Winslow from 1986 to 1988. She was an adjunct professor at New College of California from 1984 to 1993 and was associate attorney at Boltuch and Siegel from 1984 to 1986.

Winslow served as a temporary staff attorney at the California Teachers Association from 1983 to 1984 and was legal advisor to the chair of the California Public Employment Relations Board from 1979 to 1983. She was staff counsel for the National Treasury Employees Union from 1978 to 1979 and chief counsel for the Clerical and Allied Services Employees Union from 1977 to 1978. Winslow is a member of the American Constitution Society and the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar.

She earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $128,109. Winslow is a Democrat.

...Eric Banks, 41, of San Diego, has been appointed to the California Public Employment Relations Board. Banks has been partner at TenPageMemo LLC since 2013. He served in multiple positions at the Service Employees International Union, Local 221 from 2001 to 2013, including advisor, president and director of government and community relations. Banks was policy associate for state government affairs at the New York AIDS Coalition from 2000 to 2001. He worked in multiple positions at the Southern Tier AIDS Program from 1993 to 2000, including director of client services, assistant director of client services and case manager. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $128,109. Banks is a Democrat...

Ten Page Memo, LLC

Eric Banks is strategic advisor to the president of the Service Employees International Union, Local 221, representing public employees in San Diego and Imperial Counties. Before being elected as president Eric served as the Local 221's director of government and community relations. Born into a family of trade unionists, he has a deep passion for the rights of working men and women.

Eric moved to San Diego in 2001 from Albany, NY, where he worked as the policy associate for the New York AIDS Coalition (NYAC). Based in the State Capitol of New York, he was responsible for representing more than 250 AIDS organizations across the State. Eric spent over a decade working at the Southern Tier AIDS Program (STAP), directing case management, treatment education and housing services for people living with HIV/AIDS across eight counties in Upstate New York.

Emma Leheny leaves her job as head counsel at CTA; Priscilla Winslow steps in again as temp chief counsel

UPDATE FEB. 19, 2013: Emma Leheny is back as CTA chief counsel!

UPDATE FEB. 18, 2013: Priscilla Winslow appointed to PERB board.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Former (and future?) CTA head counsel Emma Leheny

There's been an upheaval in the legal department at California Teachers Association. Chief Counsel Emma Leheny has stepped aside from her position at the top of the CTA hierarchy. It appears that attorney Priscilla Winslow has challenged Leheny's power. Winslow is acting chief counsel.

CTA did not explain these goings on. It posted only the following on its website:

"The Legal Services Division is directed by Associate Executive Director and Acting Chief Counsel Priscilla Winslow."

This isn't Priscilla Winslow's first time as acting chief counsel. She also took over the CTA legal department temporarily when previous head counsel Beverly Tucker retired in 2008. Then Winslow went back to being Assistant Chief Counsel before becoming Assistant Executive Director.

It seems that Priscilla might be somewhat hard to get along with. Emma Leheny's predecessor, Ann O'Brien, served for a very short time.

On behalf of CTA, Winslow represented child molester Charles Bateman, helping him keep his credential for six years. CTA spent far more on Bateman than it was obliged by its member contract to spend.

Apparently, PERB was impressed with Winslow's practice of law. It's 2012 annual report states that on July 23, 2012, Priscilla Winslow was appointed Legal Advisor to Mr. Hugeunin. At the same time, she was Associate Executive Director of CTA as well as Assistant Chief Counsel of CTA.

Why did Emma Leheny leave her position so soon, after less than three years? Is she really gone, or did she just step aside from her leadership role, while remaining at CTA? Why isn't anyone saying anything about why Leheny left?

In fact, Leheny is still listed by the State Bar Association as working for CTA:

Emma Leheny - #196167
The following information is from the official records of The State Bar of California.
California Teachers Association
1705 Murchison DrBurlingame, CA 94010
Phone Number: (650) 552-5413
Fax Number: (650) 552-5019
e-mail: eleheny@cta.org
County: San Mateo
Undergraduate School:Brown Univ; Providence RI
Sections: Labor; Employment
Law School: Northeastern Univ SOL; Boston MA
6/29/1998 Admitted to The State Bar of California

Perhaps the Bar Association is right, and Leheny is still at CTA, just not in the chief counsel position.

Yahoo!'s Marissa Mayer--an opponent of free speech? Or just a pal of CTA boss Emma Leheny?

UPDATE:

11:27 a.m. August 8, 2012: Wow! That was fast! My website is back up again! I just sent an email to Yahoo! at 10:57 a.m. complaining about my site being down. Yahoo!'s site was available, but not my site. But perhaps it was this post that did it, not my email. The email I sent is at the bottom of this post.

ORIGINAL POST:

No sooner has Marissa Mayer become CEO of Yahoo! than I find that my website about education and politics has been taken down.

In the past it has been Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz that got Yahoo! to take down my website, but today I have a different suspect: California Teachers Association.

Poor Dean Vogel, the CTA president, is a very nice guy, but he has to do what the lawyers tell him to do.

Head Counsel Emma Leheny, the real decision-maker for California Teachers Association?

Chief Counsel Emma Leheny is the real power behind the puppets at CTA. She was personally involved in keeping evidence out of my case. I wish I could put a link to my website to provide detailed information about my case, but my site is offline.

I can provide a link to a California Court of Appeal decision in my favor which overruled a shockingly unconstitutional injunction. But energetic folks at CTA keep trying to get around the Court of Appeal. They figure they can finish off my website before the Court of Appeal can rule again. CTA, I have learned, does not believe in free speech or democracy.

It seems that new Chula Vista Educators president Jennefer Porch got particularly worked up about THIS POST. She must have been on the phone to Emma Leheny in a hot second.



EMAIL SENT TO YAHOO!:

from: Maura Larkins
to: Yahoo! Web Hosting
date: Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 10:57 AM
The California Court of Appeal has already ruled once against the people you obliged by taking my site offline

Dear Yahoo:

Are you getting as tired of this as I am? You have taken my website mauralarkins.com offline again.

You have taken down my site in the past at the request of various lawyers. Usually it has been Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, who lost in the Court of Appeal when they got a judge to order me never to mention their names. Here is that decision: http://www.leagle.com

I am headed back to the Court of Appeal again, since the judge has tried to use a different injunction to achieve the same goal as the unconstitutional injunction. She refuses to say that ANY statement at all is acceptable, even "Daniel Shinoff trains school attorneys." I will win in the Court of Appeal.

When I win, will Yahoo lose? Are you going to continue to behave as unconstitutionally as Judge Judith Hayes? You certainly did in the past.

It's not always Stutz law firm that asks you to hack my site. It's also California Teachers Association.

Is it in your interest to do these little favors for these people? To blatantly help them violate the First Amendment?

Shame on Yahoo.

I insist that you immediately put my site back online.

Maura Larkins

Teachers outraged by intransigence of CTA elites in San Diego Unified budget crisis

Head Counsel Emma Leheny, the real decision-maker for California Teachers Association?

Who really runs CTA? Obviously, not Bill Freeman. He was forced by his superiors to renege on his agreement to pursue legislation to move back the date on which teachers must be informed of layoffs.

In my experience, ALL the "elected" officials in CTA are fronts for the people who truly run CTA: the lawyers CTA's head counsel is Emma Leheny. President Dean Vogel does what he's told.

Rumblings from Teachers After Union Backs Away
February 16, 2012
By Will Carless
Voice of San Diego

...Yesterday, the teachers union stepped away from that deal. Its stance has upset some local teachers, who say the union has botched an opportunity to mend fences with the district while at the same time pushing forward legislation a majority of teachers want.

Late last night, I got this letter from two teachers at Marshall Middle School who are concerned about the direction of the union at a critical juncture for the district. The teachers, who are meeting soon with SDEA President Bill Freeman, want to see more cooperation.

Here's a snippet (I've posted the full letter below):

As educators, we recognize that our classrooms and the learning within is most successful when we embrace the idea of working together to collaborate as we problem solve. Part of this respect comes from recognizing that each person within the classroom has strengths that they can offer in order to achieve the overall goal.

As members of SDEA, we are embarrassed to see that these simple ideas that go to the very core of what we try to foster and develop within our students, helping them become successful adults willing to work with and learn from others, is the opposite of the values SDEA has repeatedly shown in the last two years.

But the real eye-opener for me was the flurry of reader comments I've been reading today on last night's post. One comment, titled an "open letter to Bill Freeman," was left by Mary Laiuppa, an educator, union member, vociferous commenter and near-constant critic of the district.

This time, Laiuppa, whose past comments have praised the union's hard work, aimed her vitriol at the union president:

The union had a great opportunity here and it was just destroyed. Don't tell me the teachers voted against this. No, this was a decision made by the SDEA elites. Sorry but this foot soldier isn't going to roll over and kow tow.

And I'll bet I'm not the only one.

This was a BAD decision. And when it hits the fan I'll be the first to shout "told you so" when the fallout starts to bury the union.

Won't be going down to the offices to make phone calls, stuff envelopes, attend candidate meetings or walk neighborhoods...