Pro-labor campaign pledges draw fire

When Marsha Vas Dupre served on Santa Rosa's City Council, she occasionally accused some council members of being beholden to those who helped get them elected -- developers and real estate interests who poured thousands of dollars into their campaigns.

Now her conduct and that of three other City Council candidates -- Michael Allen, Gary Wysocky and Judy Kennedy -- is being questioned by some of the other challengers in the November race.

All four signed pledges with the county's largest and most powerful employee union, Service International Employees Union 1021 -- promising to "publicly support and actively encourage" SEIU's organizing efforts and to encourage other employers to quickly reach labor agreements once workers vote to unionize.

It's a pledge most of the 15 candidates running for City Council said they refused to sign and contend oversteps the ethical boundaries of an elected official's duties.

"The pledge raises some ethical questions. How do you agree to that and serve on the city council," asked candidate Don Taylor, a restaurant owner.

Taylor said the union's demand to get the pledge in writing was even more surprising.

"There might have been a wink and a nod in previous elections, but putting it in writing? I found it shocking they expected you to sign a pledge of what you should do if they supported you," he said.

Vas Dupre, a retired middle school counselor who served on the council from 1998 to 2002, said she didn't see "anything onerous or heavy-handed" about the pledge.

"It's not a legally binding document. It's not like we'll be out there making Macy's a union shop. That is not our business as a city government," she said.

While she railed in past years about developer-influenced council members, she said the positive way to look at the union pledge "is it balances the playing field" between the business and labor factions that vie every two years to influence the makeup of the council.

But Vas Dupre said a true balance will be difficult to achieve. "There is no balance to the amount of money they (development- and business-supported candidates) are getting," she said.

Wysocky, a certified public accountant, said from his standpoint there is "no quid pro quo" for signing the pledge.

"I'm not telling the potential union member what to do. I want to actively encourage people to have a choice. It's a civil rights issue," he said.

Kennedy, a former health care worker and union member, signed the pledge because "the rights of workers is Santa Rosa's business."

Kennedy, who was upset by the question and accused the Press Democrat of conducting an anti-labor campaign in its news pages, said, "Voters will vote me in because they want the voice of the neighborhoods on the council. I don't think they give a rat's ass if I support labor's right to strike or not."

Allen himself once was the general manager for SEUI Local 707, which merged with other affiliates of the union last year to create a single entity, Local 1021. Today, Local 1021 represents 2,700 of county government's 4,200 workers.

Allen, a district director for state Sen. Pat Wiggins, also has publicly criticized the amount of developer and real estate money that has flowed to council members in past campaigns and argued it should be considered by voters at election time.

Allen sees no problem in signing the pledge.

"It doesn't mean you will do what the unions want you to do. It means you will be open-minded," he said.

"Ninety percent of the time what that means is you want to see a fair election process whether they vote it up or down," Allen said of the pledge.

But Santa Rosa police Lt. Ernesto Olivares, a council candidate and former president of the Santa Rosa Police Officers Association, said signing the pledge is improper.

"I don't think it's appropriate for anyone to ask a candidate to make promises to them. Seeking pledges and promises really crosses the line," he said.

Olivares, however, said there is one pledge he is willing to make. "That pledge is I will always sit down and listen."

Councilwoman and candidate Carol Dean, whose husband was a longtime but now retired union member of Santa Rosa's Fire Department, also objected to the blatancy of the request.

"Unionizing is between employee and employers. That is not why people would elect me to the city council, to go out and act as an (labor) organizer," she said.

Despite the signed pledges, only one of the four signatories has received any substantial labor campaign contributions to date.

Allen's labor support so far totals more than $12,000 given by 28 labor groups. That includes $500 from the local SEIU.

Kennedy, according to campaign filings, hasn't received any union donations while Wysocky has received only one, a $250 contribution from SEIU United Health Care Workers Political Action Committee.

Vas Dupre received a similar donation from the health care workers union along with almost $1,700 in contributions from five other labor groups.

The next update to report campaign contributions is Oct. 23.

You can reach Staff Writer Mike McCoy at 521-5276 or mike.mccoy@pressdemocrat.com.