Just as I said

During the three years of contract negotiations between the D11 board and the labor union while I was serving on the school board, I always pointed out that the school board was completely prevented from having any knowledge of what was happening in the negotiating room. I pointed out that the board, and hence the public, were kept from having any say, even though the board is a party to the contract.

Recently, board member Bob Null has asked to sit in on the negotiations with the labor union. Normally, just the D11 administration has representative involved in negotiations. I use the term “negotiations” loosely since the administration team, led by union sycophant David Schenkel, never makes any demands of the labor union.

Holmes, Robert, and Owens (HRO) is the law firm that represents D11. Attorneys for this law firm are also involved in the labor union negotiations, although my opinion has always been that HRO does as much as the labor union to prevent the board from having a say in the contract talks.

This past week, HRO and the administration have proven that my concerns about the negotiation process are well-founded. As Bob Null continued to demand a presence at the negotiating table, the administration asked HRO to weigh in to prevent his participation. The reason given is absolutely astounding for a public entity. HRO informed Null that he could not participate in labor union negotiations because he is a member of the public. Therefore, HRO said, he could not attend negotiation sessions because the current contract clearly states that negotiations are closed to the public until at least 2010 (of course, the labor union will extend that “closed” clause well before that date).

Let me make this clear. The Master Agreement names the parties to the contract. One of those parties is the D11 school board. The other is the labor union. Members of the labor union board participate in the negotiations every year. Now you have a law firm telling an elected official, who is party to a public multi-million dollar contract and who represents the people, that he has no right to know what is occurring in negotiations of a contract to which he is a party. Equally galling is the fact that none of the other labor union purchased board members is making any effort to support Null. They are willingly allowing themselves to be frozen out of a contract process that they will then blindly vote to approve anyway.

The labor union leaders have always claimed that they were opposed to public negotiations of their public contract because the negotiations might turn into grandstanding in front of the public. All Null is asking is for him to be allowed inside the room while negotiations are occurring. The true colors of the labor union masters are shining through.

Despite all of the past denials about whether or not the school board was denied access to the negotiation process, the HRO “opinion,” which was encouraged not only by labor union leaders, but administrators as well, proves that I was correct. The contract process continues, and the D11 public is forbidden from participating. The administration, which is supposed to work for the school board on behalf of the public, does not want board members to be involved. Why would this be the case? Because the labor union and the administration (and union purchased board members) are working in-sync to get as much public funding as possible for their own wallets while denying the public the right to hold the district accountable for its ½ billion dollar budget and failing schools.