SEIU Local 1000 president posts six years’ worth of union credit card spending info online

The president of California’s largest state employee union has posted six years’ worth of union credit card statements online detailing his spending and the spending of his predecessor.

In an unusual move for a nonprofit organization, SEIU Local 1000 president Richard Louis Brown shared his spending information since July on the union’s website. Brown took office June 30. The bank statements don’t include an account number.

He also posted five years’ worth of statements for Yvonne Walker, the union’s last president. Some of the statements from Walker’s time include a 16-digit bank account number.

Brown didn’t immediately respond to a voicemail Thursday asking why he had posted the information. Walker also did not respond to a voicemail.

He pledged transparency during his campaign, and since his election has been live-streaming union discussions and meetings, has removed a paywall from the union’s website and has posted the organization’s tax forms online.

He has also been feuding with a group of board members on the union’s 65-member board of directors since shortly after his election in May. Some board members have taken issue with his often-combative tone in the meetings, his refusal to provide union leave for elected union leaders to conduct union business and for other actions, including spending money the board members contend should have required board approval.

On Nov. 10, during a weekly online discussion with union members, a member identified as Michael Guss asked Brown if he would post his own credit card bills to a part of the union’s website.

“For transparency, would you be willing to — maybe not in the public area and of course with the numbers blacked out — post the bills for the members, so those of us who pay our dues can view that? I think that would be a great step toward transparency,” Guss said in the meeting, which was recorded and posted online.

In his response, Brown said that board member Theresa Taylor, one of the organizers of last month’s meeting, had asked for the credit card information but that he had been too busy to provide it to her.

He called the board’s meeting illegal and said it wasn’t transparent. The meeting was not open to members or to the press.

“It’s funny because the illegal board meeting they had wasn’t transparent,” Brown said. “Now that you ask about the credit card statements, I think you’re absolutely right. But I want to take some time, I don’t want to make an emotional decision.”

Then, in the last minute of last night’s two-hour discussion, he said he had posted information not only about his own credit card — to which the records show he has charged about $7,600 — but for all the union leaders’ cards back to 2015.

“Remember when Michael Guss called last week, talking about credit cards,” he said. “And you know, ‘if you were being so transparent, Richard, you’d post your credit card transactions, if you’re so transparent and you’re not stealing money.’ Well maybe he didn’t say those exact words, but he said I would post that. Well, Michael, I thought about it, because I listen to you. So what I did, oh yeah, I posted the credit cards. Oh yes I did. And I’m still trying to get the rest of the information. But I did you one better Michael. I didn’t post just for me. I posted for everybody, going back to 2015. It’s on the website.”

Last month, a group of board members held a meeting that included a vote to strip him of most of his powers as president. Brown has called the meeting illegitimate and hasn’t given up any of his powers.

The group took a vote to transfer the president’s powers to a chairperson selected by the board, and selected board member Bill Hall as chairman.

On Thursday, Hall called Brown’s decision to post the credit card statements “inappropriate and unfortunate.”

“Any reasonable board member of any board, not just Local 1000 but any board, should have a concern about an officer doing this kind of stuff,” he said.

Brown has said in the meetings that he authorized spending about $51,000 on a rally held to oppose the state’s planned closure of a prison in Lassen County and about $55,000 to publish information favoring two CalPERS candidates in a recent election.

This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.