Union’s Endorsements Criticized

A group of West Hollywood city workers has accused leaders of the city employee union of improperly throwing union support in the April 10 City Council elections to a slate of candidates that includes one aspirant whose campaign is being managed by a union vice president.

The critics went public last week after the city employees’ chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, representing about 90 workers, sent out an aggressive citywide mailer attacking incumbent Councilman John Heilman and urging voters to support candidates Sal Guarriello, Babette Lang and Stephen Martin.

The mailer prompted several city employees to accuse union leaders of acting without a full vote of the rank and file. The employees specifically criticized union vice president Dennis Orfirer, who they said has a conflict of interest on the matter because he is Guarriello’s campaign manager.

“It seems strange that they are not aware that this is a conflict of interest,” said David Scott, an assistant to the city clerk.

Union officials accused their critics of belonging to a fringe group of disgruntled Heilman supporters.

“All you have are a couple of people who are friends of John Heilman who are trying to make trouble,” said Orfirer, a hearing examiner for the rent stabilization department. “The union membership is strongly behind the endorsements.”

Orfirer said his position as campaign manager for Guarriello does not represent a conflict for most union members. “I made it clear that I represented him,” he said. “Besides, the vote was so overwhelming that it wouldn’t have made any difference.”

He said that all members of AFSCME Local 3339 were invited to attend a meeting in February at which five of the nine candidates competing for three open seats were interviewed for endorsements. After the interviews, those in attendance voted to recommend Guarriello, Lang and Martin for endorsement.

The union’s executive board officially approved the recommendation a couple of days later. “It was a very open process,” Orfirer said.

However, critics of the selection, who say they represent about 25 employees, contend that even though they were all invited to the candidate interviews, it was never explained that an endorsement vote would take place at the end of the meeting.

“Many more people would have come to the meeting had they known they would be voting to endorse candidates,” said Wayne H. Zimmerman, an analyst for the city’s Department of Public Works. By the time the vote was taken, he said, the audience had dwindled to about a dozen people.

Orfirer replied that “the word vote may not have been used, but the overall context of the message was that a selection was going to be made.”

Besides, he added, the outcome of the balloting would not have changed.

“We have a lot at stake,” he said. “John Heilman has been a thorn in our side, he’s virulently anti-labor. Over the last few years he has taken numerous anti-labor positions.”

The union, he said, raised dues last year as part of an effort to become more aggressive in supporting candidates for the council campaign. Thus far, the funds have been used to support citywide mailings. The first mailing introduced the union-supported candidates, the second specifically targeted Heilman.

“Don’t believe him!” the letter’s cover read. Inside it says: “John Heilman says you must reelect him to protect our strong rent control law. . . . ‘Baloney!’ says AFSCME, the city employees union.” The letter goes on to reiterate the union’s endorsement of Guarriello, Lang and Martin.

Two of the union-supported candidates, Guarriello and Lang, along with Heilman, have also been endorsed by the Coalition for Economic Survival, the renters’ group that has generally dominated city politics since West Hollywood incorporated in 1984.

Lang and Heilman are running a joint campaign. Guarriello has run an independent campaign, occasionally taking aim at Heilman’s record.

Guarriello accuses Heilman and the coalition of orchestrating the current flap over his union endorsement.

“The opposition is trying to make a big deal out of this,” Guarriello said. “We are running a clean, clean, squeaky clean campaign. CES is creating the problems, and it’s Heilman’s camp.”

For his part, Heilman contends that he is not anti-union and that the uproar signals that he still has support among the union’s rank and file.

“They can say I’m anti-union but it doesn’t make it so,” he said. “The truth is I’m not going to be their puppet and do what they tell me to do every time they ask for an increase.”