Judge Orders Do-Over-Over Election

By the end of the school year, teachers will get a third chance to select their union president — for a term that is nearly over.

U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant has ordered the New Haven Federation of Teachers to hold a second rerun of a controversy-plagued Dec. 2018 election.

For current NHFT president Dave Cicarella, this second rerun hinges on a technicality.

For challenger Tom Burns, it is justice at last. Before learning of Bryant’s decision, he was planning to retire this summer.

“Maybe there is fairness and justice. So I have to finish out the justice now. If I win, I stay. If I lose, I go,” Burns said.

However the election goes, the winner would have to run again in November in the union’s regularly scheduled election.

Cicarella won the presidency in 2018 against Burns by a narrow margin. Another challenger, Cameo Thorne, came in third with the least votes.

Afterwards, Burns raised questions about every ballot being counted and Cicarella exerting undue influence on the campaign as the incumbent. The national American Federation of Teachers ordered a rerun of the election for an unrelated technicality. At the same time, they barred Burns from participating in the rerun on grounds that he ​“extorted” Cicarella by threatening to go public with some money mismanagement allegations.

The U.S. Department of Labor took issue with how this part of the process went down. AFT did not notify Burns that they would discipline him in this way or give him a chance to prepare a response, the department argued. The union response was that this was an membership eligibility question and that the notification was sufficient. Bryant sided with the Department of Labor.

Now, the New Haven Federation of Teachers’ election committee is readying for another election under the supervision of the Department of Labor, as Bryant ordered.

As a candidate, Cicarella is not part of the committee. He just answers questions about past elections and protocols as they come up.

“I almost welcome the Department of Labor supervision. Let them supervise it and make sure no one makes any inadvertent mistakes,” Cicarella said.

The third candidate in the 2018 election, Cameo Thorne, told the Independent on Wednesday that she does not want to run for union president again. Thorne has been recovering from a neck and spinal injury and is dealing with significant amounts of pain. When she returns to work, she wants to focus on her baby — the district’s new restorative justice policy.

Previously, the three candidates differed on how to approach then-Superintendent Carol Birks and then-Mayor Toni Harp. Cicarella held that the union achieved most by working with City Hall and the Board of Education behind the scenes. Thorne and Burns favored a more confrontational style.

Burns said that he sees less of a need for confrontation under the current administrations of Superintendent Iline Tracey and Mayor Justin Elicker. He now sees his advantage as governing through consensus more than Cicarella.

Cicarella did not want to talk about his candidacy, since the campaign period has not started yet.

“There is a strict campaign window,” Cicarella said. ​“Just to veer on the side of safety, I don’t want to offer any opinions yet.”