Judie Italiano out as manager of MEA, the largest white collar union of San Diego city employees

Judie Italiano has resigned as manager of the San Diego Metropolitan Employees Association (MEA), and her erstwhile supporters are scrambling to distance themselves from her.

Events have developed quickly since MEA members Linda French and Ed Harris sued Ms. Italiano a few weeks ago.


Italiano Resigns After Investigation Finds Card Misuse
Voice of San Diego
RANI GUPTA
May 29, 2009

Judie Italiano, the longtime general manager of the Municipal Employees' Association, has resigned after an internal investigation determined that she continued to use the union's credit cards for her personal use despite promising not to do so in 2006.

MEA board members said in a letter sent to members today that the union had referred the matter to the District Attorney's Office for "its determination as to whether any crime was committed in the course of Ms. Italiano's breach of trust."

Michael Zucchet, a former city councilman who had been working as a consultant to the group, has been acting as general manager since Italiano was put on leave May 12 as the union conducted an investigation.

Italiano's personal use of credit cards was first discovered in 2006 and was the subject of an internal investigation, a campaign to unseat her, and an investigation by then-City Attorney Mike Aguirre.

In an interview today, MEA President Tony Ruiz said the union subsequently changed its policies to prohibit the personal use of credit cards. Italiano also agreed to pay the association back for personal charges, Ruiz said.

Ruiz said Italiano stopped using the card for personal charges shortly after those charges came to light. But starting in November 2006, she resumed using the union cards for personal charges such as groceries and a casino gift shop, Ruiz said.

Ruiz said he discovered Italiano's personal credit charges when he was preparing his first budget as association president and examined the books kept by office staff. The letter sent to members says Italiano wrote the organization a check totaling $13,903 covering the full amount, including interest, of $6,916 owed in credit card charges, along with $6,987 in annual leave. Those cover charges made through February 2009, Ruiz said.

"We were all taken in by Judie," Ruiz said. "She [said] she would not be doing this type of behavior anymore. We put these policies in place and she agreed to these policies, and she breached our trust."



[Maura Larkins' note: I'm not sure I believe Mr.Ruiz. I think Bud Simpson might be describing the situation more accurately:

"Judie pretty much had the board of directors eating
out of her hand," Simpson said. "She's done a pretty
good job for them and, as a result, she makes sure she
has the executive committee handpicked."

Simpson added that the general membership didn't
appear to care. "Just as long as you take care of us,
we'll forgive minor indiscretions," he said.]

Judie Italiano announces that she's MEA's executive-for-life

The San Diego Union Tribune quotes Metropolitan Employees Association general manager Judie Italiano as saying:

"MEA is never, ever, as long as I can draw a breath, endorsing Mike Aguirre."

Well, that's pretty clear. But MEA's lawyer Ann Smith has made it clear that she and former president Judie Italiano are a package deal. Ann Smith "threatened" to resign if Judie were not named general manager.

Judie and Ann are perfect duplicates of California Teachers Association's controlling couple, Carolyn Doggett and Beverly Tucker, the CTA executive director and her lawyer, who also seem to be a package deal.

Well, San Diego, it seems we're in for a long ride with JudieAnn Italismith. We'll have their billion-dollar budget-busting noses in faces, making demands for some time.

A reminder of odd bedfellows (unions and Republicans) created by the pension crisis

Why did unions in San Diego support Republican Brian Maienschein for the City Council? It was a match made when Republican Mayor Dick Murphy made his pact with city unions that unions would be granted extremely generous pension benefits in return for helping cover up the fact that the pension system was underfunded. Today I saw a reminder of the bizarreness of these strange bedfellows:

Voice of San Diego
by Scott Lewis
Link
You might remember my discussion of the potential awkwardness that would come up when Brian Maienschein funded his city attorney campaign.

To refresh, he's going to use the stash of funds left over from his 2004 campaign for City Council. Today the city clerk posted his latest financial disclosures and sure enough, the transfer is complete. Now, all those donors to his 2004 campaign are listed, essentially, as donors to his city attorney campaign...

One of them listed, for example, is attorney Karen Heumann. She, of course, is now one of the most important people in City Attorney Mike Aguirre's administration.

The second name that really stood out was Tony Krvaric -- the head of the Republican Party of San Diego County. It's fair to say Krvaric is not a supporter of Maienschein's bid for city attorney...


Ironic that Krvaric might have helped pay for that mailer.

The list of people who also are now funding Maienschein's city attorney campaign includes Murray Galinson, who is actually counted as a supporter of Scott Peters.

The list itself is a who's who:

Jerry Butkiewicz, who until recently was the Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego Imperial Counties Labor Council...

Fred Sainz, the mayor's spokesman

Judie Italiano, general manager of the city employees' white collar union

City Councilman Kevin Faulconer

Phil Thalheimer, who's running for City Council District 1

Ronne Froman, the former COO of the city

Joe Craver, the head of the local Red Cross...

Ann Smith said San Diego had to pay when it was a billion in debt, now she says city has to pay even more

After Metropolitan Employees Association (MEA) lawyer Ann Smith helped finagle a deal (that the SEC says was illegal) with the City of San Diego, she insisted that San Diego had to stick with the deal even though it put the city a billion dollars into the red and was illegal.

Now she says that the city's health care payments have gone down, so the city should pass on the savings.

Pass on the savings, but not the losses, eh, Ann?

Ann Smith clearly doesn't care if her union bankrupts the city.