In yet another example of the sorts of conflicts of interest that permeate the New Rochelle School District, Talk of the Sound has learned that the President of the New Rochelle teachers union is being paid over $500 an hour by the New Rochelle school district. Marty Daly, the President of F.U.S.E., is the head of the bargaining unit representing over 2,000 district employees that is currently in the midst of “secret” contract negotiations. Daly is negotiating against an administration that is paying him over $10,000 a month working less 5 hours a week. Nice work if you can get it!
To put this in context, F.U.S.E. does not represent just teachers – they bargain on behalf over well over 2,000 district employees (everyone except those under contract, meaning the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendents) ranging from school principals to security guards to carpenters to history teachers to janitors.
Sources tell Talk of the Sound that Daly is paid a full-time salary of $105,000 to each a single course at Isaac E. Young Middle School. As a full-time employee, Daly is also entitled to over 100 sick days, personal days, and vacation days per year. We were unable to determine whether Daly received full benefits but if so that would be an exception to the union contract which requires employees to work more than half-time to be eligible for full benefits. All of Daly’s six figure salary accrues to his pension which is another liability for the school district, sources say.
Daly plays many other roles in New Rochelle, all with the common purpose of achieving the goals of the union — increasing membership and increase the amount of union dues coming from that membership. To advance that cause, Marty Daly is also the Co-President of the New Rochelle PTA Council which each year engages in a massive get-out-the-vote effort on behalf of candidates vetted and approved by the teachers union. Daly serves on their campaign committees and helps raise funds for candidates. Daly also uses his position to urge his membership to support “approved” candidates.
Last month Marty Daly was Buffalo for a NYSUT (the state teachers union) conference at which he was a speaker. The conference offered workshops, one of which should catch the attention of New Rochelle residents: “ways to get elected officials to be advocates for public education”. Marty Daly has been permitted to infiltrate every corner of the school district so that he represents over 99% of district employees, hand-picks school board candidates and is able to use public and private resources to elect candidates committed to his agenda of an ever-increasing amount of money for an ever-increasing budget with the ultimate goal of shaking every available dollar out of the New Rochelle money tree.
The teachers union in New Rochelle has been, for quite some time, engaged in an effort to pack the school board with candidates who will support union demands. Unions care about two things – getting more members and getting more dues from those members. The way to get more members is to expand the types of employees that are under the union for collective bargaining purposes and to add as much staff, especially teaching staff, as the possibly can. The school board, in turn, hires administrators who support or least will kowtow to the union. The way this manifests itself is in statements like those of Superintendent Organisciak who refused to answer questions from New Rochelle residents as to whether or not there would pay freezes or if teachers would be fired but did answer this same question when asked by the Journal News. Not surprisingly, the answer was that the district’s negotiating position with the union was no pay freezes no firings. In other words, everyone keeps their job and everyone gets a raise. Not exactly hardball negotiating tactics.
Amen, to who ever wrote that
Amen, to who ever wrote that comment. Could not of been said better. Look into that.
Ask Mr Organisiciak what the
Ask Mr Organisiciak what the school tax increase is in his town? Or if there were any teacher/school staff lay offs where he lives in Long Island?
are you speaking of salary
are you speaking of salary and benefits as a teacher or something else. If it is something else it would represent a clear conflict of interest and would open up the entire bargaining process to scrutiny by the state. can you be more specific on this
Marty Daly is paid $105,000
Marty Daly is paid $105,000 as a teacher. That is his salary. He is paid as if he works full time when he does not. I know of no other teacher in New Rochelle (or anywhere) that gets paid a six-figure salary for working 5 hours a week.
This is disgusting! Thank
This is disgusting! Thank you for reporting this info. I hope that this misuse of public funds will be taken care of immediately!
I have written to NYS
I have written to NYS Department of Education as well as the National Labor Relations people in Washington concerning any conflict of interest or violations of the principles of collective bargaining. Mr Daley is entitled to his salary and benefits given his union status and doees not have to meet a threshhold that we may be more comfortable with. That is not the issue and, in fairness, we need to determine if there is an issue. the Co Chair of the PTA coupled with the collective strength of the uniion membership could suggest a conflict as, conceivably, he is influential on both sides of the negotiating table (PTA members are taxpayers and voters and at least theoretically should be represented by their elected employer, the school board. Another matter concerns his attendance at school tax community meetings where there is a public record of his responding to questions directed at the school board; one being if the boards is looking into placing the issue of union member contribution towards health and welfare benefits on the table. The Journal News has a record of such as response given in 2007/8 as do members in the audience who asked the question or anticipated the reply. The issue of the correctness of Ms. Babcock-Deutsch’s response to Mr Cox indicating that Mr Organisiciak could not answer a general question re: collective bargaining is also under advisement given Cox’ standing in the community as a taxpayer/voter and the fact that the query was not specifically directed at any particular aspect of the contract terms under discussion or apparently under discussion. I am requesting concrete information as well on whether the contract negotiations are still on-going or if completed, signed, sealed and deliverd, when that occurred. Finally, I want more factual information on the role the state would play if the 3.22% tax hike is rejected and a contingency budget of 3.07$ or so percent is made operative. This involves around $330 thousand dollars; a mere pittance in a 222millionn or so dollar budget and I want the state to tell me if they would mandate how the budget is to be spent, and I will also contact NYSUT to determine whether this situation would negatively impact collective bargaining and I will further ask my former colleagues in finance and accounting whether this would negatively impact our ability to go into the credit market. What I have said above are highlighs from current or pending district literature to support the budget — typical scare tactics and not to be tolerated by mean or my neighbors and associates. By the way, finding such a trivial amount of money should be a snap given the little effort put into this by the district and should have absolutely no effect on FUSE headcount.