Longtime California state union president resigns, citing anti-incumbent attitude

Three leaders of the union that represents California state attorneys and administrative judges resigned Friday, citing internal politics they said had become unworkable.

In resignation emails, the union’s president and two members of its board of directors said a “change for the sake of change” mentality has taken hold of the board of the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment.

Known as CASE, the organization is one of the smaller unions in California state government, representing about 4,600 workers.

The resignations come after an election last fall ushered in a slate of six board members promising to take a more aggressive stance in contract negotiations with the state and to fight to correct what they say are pay gaps compared to similar jobs at state, federal and private organizations.

The candidates promised in campaign materials to “fight hard to change the perception of (CASE) as the least engaged and least adversarial bargaining unit.”

Timothy O’Connor, formerly the union’s vice president and now its acting president, disagreed with the “change for the sake of change” claim, adding that last fall’s election had higher-than-normal turnout.

“It is change that was very well thought out, very well vetted and consistent with the overwhelming voting of the membership that elected the new slate,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor said the union’s main goals — salary equity for state attorneys, eliminating salary inequity for administrative law judges and improving family leave — remain the same, but the board has taken new approaches to pursuing them.

At the end of January, 10 of the board’s 15 members voted to fire consultants who were in the middle of contract negotiations with the state, according to the emails.

The board fired consultants Ellison Wilson, John Perez and Darrell Steinberg — who is Sacramento’s mayor and a former CASE member. They hired Blanning and Baker, the Sacramento firm that represents state scientists and engineers.

The union’s current contract expires at the end of June. Negotiations sometimes continue past contract expiration dates with contract terms remaining in effect.

Peter Flores was the union’s president for about 14 years before resigning Friday. He had won re-election in the fall to another two-year term.

Flores said in his resignation email that 10 board members had formed a “pact” to vote together, and accused the group of bias toward tenured members.

“My position as a longtime, experienced member of the board seems to raise near automatic opposition from some members of the majority pact,” Flores said in the email.

He accused the board members of acting hastily to jettison the consultants, of impeding full board discussions and of brushing aside his concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

O’Connor said the board performed its due diligence in selecting Blanning and Baker.

The other board members who resigned were Jennifer Jadovitz and Matthew Mulford.

This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 5:25 AM.