pe ene } PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FEDERATION art-cio ($18) 785-1900, : ord paneiee Pre S070 Noy cheney Ros eeaen LS Mere Sune 23,2016 ‘VIA OVERNIGHT, CERTIFIED MAUL - RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED, FIRST CLASS MAIL AND ELECTRONIC MAIL Nikki Brate —— ‘Albany, New York 12205 Dear Vice President Brat: ‘As you know, I have the Constitutional authority to establish and assign regular duties to each ofthe PEF Vice Presidents. Lalso have the fdtary responsibility to ensure thatthe duties {assign are being properly performed and that paid full time union release to perform such duties is an appropriate use of membership dues. ‘As explained below, since you have not properly performed thee important regulat assignments that [gave you as well as other smaller assignments and since [have no other assignments for you which would justify your ful time release a from you Ste poston, 1 hove saised GOER to ein our inion ave ei ee isnt Beane joie or he union fo py for sch eave.‘ yo will son? tur o yout Sais poston effecive bepnning Of busines lune 27, 2016. Your coe tgoncy wil be in conte Wh You teping You un wer agency will be th you regarding your retu Serye™——spectcay, yon have filed to propery handle the following. cies! ee a assignments. Fist, I assigned you to the duty of Chair of the 2015 FEF SGSt— Convention Commitee. Immediately prior 0, ring and afer, the Convention, 1 learned of many serious problems you caused, Fortunately, because ofthe hud econ work of others, our 2015 Convention was sill a success. In your role as 2015 Convention Chair, you filed to meet with all Commitee members; you advised rere the PEF Staff person asigned tothe Convention to ignore my directions, and you emer, told that same Staff person to desiroy a document which was essential to esi determining the process that you followed with respect to assigning rooms which — ‘was the subject af much concern and problems. Also, PEF received a letter from the Hospitality Group who handled the 2015 Convention dealing an impromptu 3 Vebour meeting you had with them on the Friday before the Convention, You ‘made nimerous room changes to the already pre-asigned rooming list. YouVice President Nikki Brate June 23, 2016 Page 2 ‘caused hardship to the front desk as attendees were not notified of changes and caused billing issues which took hours to research and correct. You did such things as moving volunteers 10 luxury suites and delegates to standard accommodations. “Further, the PEF Trustees did an independent review of the 2015 Convention, particularly the assignment of rooms and use of volunteers, and issued a report which showed many deficiencies in your performance. Thus, because of those past problems, in the best interest of the membership, I didnot sssign you tobe the Convention Chair forthe upcoming 2016 PEF Convention, Second, | assigned you tobe the Statewide PAC Chait. As PEF President and, 2s per the Constitution, an ex-officio member of the PAC Committe, I need to be able to work and communicate effectively with the PAC chair. However, you made it extremely difficult for me to communicate with yeu on a regular basis fegarding political endorsements and legislative issuet handled by that Committee. Thus, once again in the best interest of PEF, I removed you from that assignment Further, most recently, it was reported to me that you ealled Senator Amedore's Chief of Staff, demanded to speak with the Senator, indivated that you were speaking on behalf of PEF and advocated that a bill corcemniag Information ‘Technology ("IT") supported by PEF, be “killed.” You advised that both myself and PEF's Legislative Office should have had checked with you before ‘supporting tha bill. It was also reported to me thal, during your phone call, you ‘were rude, abrasive and disruptive lo Senator Amedore's sta ‘As PEF President, under the Constitution, I am the chief sokesperson for PEF. Further, as you are well aware, we have a process for sting our legislative ‘agenda and lobbying, I followed our process with respect to the IT bil, inctading ‘getting input fiom members, and your representation that you were speaking on ‘behalf of PEF when you caled the Senalor’s Chief of Staff was improper snd, ‘could have potentially undermined PEF"s position with the Legislature, had our Legislative Dizector not acted quickly to resolve your misrepresentation withthe ‘Senator's office. This is further illustration tha you were not sulted to be the PAC chair as you did not operate within PEF policies or constitutional structure ‘and failed to communicate with me on this issve prior to improperly calling the ‘Senator’ office and representing you were spezking on behalf of PEF. ‘Third 1 assigned you as the Chair of Membership Engagement, In that capacity, ‘you could not work cooperatively with the Staff assigned. You also filed to keep ‘ther elected leaders and me updated regarding the work that you were éoing inVice President Nikki Brate June 23, 2016 Page 3 ‘his very important area. Once agun, inthe best interest ofthe membership, Iwas {orced to remove you from this assignment. Fourth, I also gave you more limited assignments which you did not fulfil, Below are three examples. (1) By email dated May 5, 2016, 1 asked you to look ino the financial concerns raised by a Division 373 member, and report back to ime so T can share it with the Executive Board on May 17th, 1 also asked you to look into the use of eontract workers to do our union Work at this same work ‘and report your findings to me so I could report out to the Executive Board on May 17th. You failed to provide any report or recommendation to me, es 1 had directed, regarding this very sensitive matter. (2) I assigned you to, and you agreed to, ettend and run a contract meeting. Specifically, you were asigned to & contract membership meeting in April 2016, "You filed to attend thet meeting and instead went to a retiree conference in Rochester NY. That was an event t© which you were not invited. Again you agreed and accepted an assignment but chose not to follow through and not inform me. (3) Further, by email dated April 13, 2016, at the request ofa local leader, Iasigned you to work with member at OMIG regarding firearm/workplace violence issues, you have failed to report to ‘me the slatus of that assignment or take any action with respect 10 that assignment. These three incidens further demonstrate your inability to handle assignments and effectively work with me. This further supports my conclusion ‘that your fulltime release isnot an appropriate use of our members" dues money. ‘As you know, the past practice of PEF Presidents has been to assign Vice Presidents to the Convention, PAC duties or LIM duties. Although this isnot 8 binding practice, it does cover the major areas where ful ime release would be {sifed. Since you have been unable to perform two ofthese responsibilities and since another VP is handling LIM duties, I have no other major assignment for you which would justify full ime release from your Siate employment. Thus, I inave no sufficient justifieation to request fulltime release on your behalf which currenly costs PEF $162,906 anavally for salary and benefits. Therefore, you no longer have fulltime release and you should report to your State job on June 27, 2016. You, of course, remain a PEF Vice President and you will ill be able 0 represent your ennstitiency and, if necessary, you can request EOL for consideration, ‘You should know that I did not make this decision quickly oF without thorough review. T gave you many opportunities to handle very significant and important duties as a Vice President, but unfortunately, you were notable to handle those responsibilities and there are 20 other duties to which I could assign you thatVice President Nikki Brate June 23, 2016 Page 4 ‘would justi using PEF members’ dues to support your fu time release fom, yout State position. | have a fiduciary duty to PEF and its membership to ensure that members’ dues ‘money is spent forthe benefit of PEF and for the reasons set forth above, that duty leaves me no option a this point in time but to discontinue the discretionary, full-time release associated with your position. My decision to remove the full-ime release isnot based on Professional Conduct Policy charges you are facing filed by three PEF stsff members. That matter remains pending. My decision is based solely on my fideciary obligation to censure PEF dues money is spent inthe best interest of PEF members. Sincerely, ‘Wayhe Speice President cc: Statewide Officers (via email oly) Executive Board (via e-mail oly)