Follow Up From Brother Mohler

President Niemiec took approximately one hour to explain a chronology of events, he developed, regarding my motion to make the reconstruction of FS10 a high priority during the budget deliberations. These events were a series of emails, phone calls and face to face conservations that took place prior to and after my motion. The questions you sent previously covered most of the subject matters and areas of most concern to the executive board. Lot's of allegations were made by President Niemiec and others about timing, information not included during the discussion phase of my motion, Local 2068 chain of command and my use of the VPFF retainer agreement. Once Pres. Niemiec was done I attempted to fill in the gaps in the chronology, explain some of my actions and provide background as to the need for this motion. It quickly became clear that an explanation from me was not what was wanted as I stood against a barage of allegations and "What would Mike Mohler have done under the same circumstances"? Which I believe is a very fair question. This actually happened several times during my administration as both the Local Pres. and VPFF Pres. I have come to make good use of the "serenity prayer" for these times. I say this because I know when our members get something in their head that they feel very strongly about,especially those familiar with parlimentary procedure, they are determined to have their day. So the best thing to do, is work to sway opinion and work to protect the Local. It is not always necessary to be right nor win as long as you can avoid damage to the Local. I believe the problem is, that these issues are more about personalities than the substance of the issue. I own some of the blame for this and will continue to question my motives and seek objective counsel before launching anything. In this instance I have a totally clear conscience as it relates to my motive for my motion. Although I do believe that sharing the legal opinion I received would have been a fair thing to do; my and Pres. Niemiec's relationship is not one based on trust. The members stated firmly and clearly that they expect Pre. Niemiec and I to work cooperatively on their behalf. We shook hands, but results will be a better measure of our individual sincerity.

Another issue of concern had to do with the right of retiree's to have a full vote for less than half dues. V.P. Bailey said someone was pushing the idea that they should have no vote. My personal position is that it
is not healthy for the retirees to dominate a Local Union. A half vote for half dues is the standard all over the IAFF. Sec./Treas Gray reported that the retirees currently make up 33% of Local 2068's membership. Tom Simcoe stated that the retiree's are easy to represent because the scope of their issues are so narrow. You can't say that about our incumbent members. The scope of there personal, financial and operational issues are very broad in scope and need intense attention. I believe that there is strong evidence that retiree issues are dominating our Executive board's time and will only worsen over time. I suggest that you take a look on the Local's forum for a posting by Leigh Boswell for an in depth opinion on this matter. While Leigh does not deny retirees a full vote, she clearly has a grasp of the problem that retiree dominance creates.

Ron Kuley, to his credit, also reaffirmed his support for a retreat for the purpose of mediating the differences that currently exist on the executive board. There was a call for Leigh to be brought up on charges for operating outside some vague chain of command. I truly believe this was totally unfair. Leigh admitted to some missteps during the previously discussed matter and said she would be more apt to work cooperatively with the whole board but I believe this will require the same committment from all parties. This is where Brother Kuley's suggestion can be of real value. There was a specific agenda, but I was busy defending my actions. Since then I have been thinking about all the comments that were made and I'm dealing introspectfully with the hope of changing any unacceptable behavior on my part.