Where is YOUR DUE$ Money going?

Donate to P.O.C. so we can continue fighting for your Rights:

A State employee union has no business spending $60,000 on a sheriff’s race – that’s why!!   

When a Board Member of CAUSE / CSLEA requested to see a PAC report, President Barcelona handed out one copy of the report showing approximately $8,500 in PAC donations to Mark Puthuff.  The document was repossessed during the same meeting as “confidential.”  There is not supposed to be anything “confidential” about political donations from unions to candidates – or who approves them at CAUSE/CSLEA. Besides, wasn’t the CAUSE / CSLEA PAC supposed to be “transparent?”  It was not until months later that the actual truth came out, when a Stanislaus County deputy sent a copy of the County Registrar’s contribution reports, that anyone finally knew the full extent of CAUSE / CSLEA’s spending.

If you look at the entire election in context it becomes clear that President Barcelona pulled out all the stops to help his buddy.  President Barcelona barred Mark Christianson, Puthuff’s opponent, from meeting with the PAC Committee, and then, furthermore, misrepresented his positions, including that he supported privatizing your retirement accounts to the PAC Committee.  Barcelona spent more money on a 2-to-1 loser than they did helping Gray Davis during the Recall – not only did Gray have a better finish than Puthuff, but at least he gave us pay and benefit increases!!  It is even worse when you find out that Puthuff was not even endorsed by his own local police or sheriff’s associations.  

Was it friendship or was it incompetence that led him to this - or was it something else?  Also, ask yourselves why it is not possible for anyone to see Mark Puthuff’s ‘candidate questionnaire?’  Is it OK for peace officers to misrepresent the position of other cops?  Like that Puthuff’s opponent supported taking away our retirement benefits? 

Financial accountability has been a big part of this severance.  CAUSE / CSLEA  and President Barcelona seems to think that we work for them, rather than they work for us. Peace Officers of California (P.O.C.) want transparency and full accountability to every single member. Since we are unable to obtain a copy of any records from CAUSE / CSLEA it is hard to imagine that motives change.  What did President Barcelona have to gain from getting his buddy elected as sheriff of his old home town?  Is it possible, now that he has reached eligibility to retire, that he was trying to find himself a new job?  Could he have wanted his friend’s old job as undersheriff - with a separate retirement account from PERS and a $140K plus salary?  What do you think? What sounds likely to you?

If P.O.C.'s observations and questions are unfounded, why will the current administration not just provide copies of the vote records?  The truth is CAUSE / CSLEA cannot conjure up copies of e-mails that do not exist and the facts are that the CAUSE / CSLEA board never approved that degree of expenditure at any meeting.  Now, President Barcelona can be expected to say that he told the CAUSE / CSLEA board members that it could be expensive and that they gave him approval – but if that were really true, then why not send one lump sum check, instead of cutting over 36 separate checks (which means Barcelona sent Wayne Ordos 36 separate approval forms – can you imagine how much time that all took?) He personally oversaw the entire election, which is oddly reflective of his tenure at CAUSE / CSLEA – spent a great deal of your money on something that was totally off mission, and lose 2-to-1. Interesting!!?

CAUSE / CSLEA tries to make out that the game wardens are a “rogue” group out to harm the greater good – but the simple truth is they requested copies of these documents while on the CAUSE / CSLEA board and were then denied further access and were told to sue them if they ever wanted any documents out of the union.  Joe Mello, who sat on the PAC committee, asked for copies of his approvals because he knew he had never approved that kind of funding.  Instead of getting to the bottom of things, President Barcelona’s response was that Mello’s wife worked on the campaign pulling a billboard trailer – so he had to have approved the funds.  It is true that Joe Mello’s wife was paid to drive advertising billboards around Stanislaus County, because he is one of the few CAUSE / CSLEA members who lives in the district and President Barcelona begged her to do so.  In the attached e-mail you can see Warden Mello defend CAUSE / CSLEA regarding expense rumors to a Stanislaus County DSA member, that is, up until the point it became clear that CAUSE / CSLEA had totally bankrolled an entire sheriff’s election.

CAUSE / CSLEA tells everyone that they have a “transparent” PAC – which is completely not the case. What do you think? The following link will take you directly to the Secretary of State’s website which lists the CAUSE / CSLEA contributions, and if you can tell that they spent $60,000 on Mark Puthuff, then your psychic.  We believe Barcelona thought that he could get away with it - that nobody would notice - if he just took a little bit at a time!! He was wrong!! CAUSE / CSLEA and their board have been asked many times to turn over records and they have denied members access.  We contacted an attorney who believed that we would need $100,000 in order to force CAUSE / CSLEA to turn over the documentation, but it was decided that such funds would be better spent supporting the Severance. 

However, make no mistake, after the Severance is complete P.O.C. will insist that CAUSE / CSLEA turn over its financial documents and we will have the resources to do so.  If it turns out, in fact, that a breach of fiduciary responsibility or worse was indeed committed by the CAUSE / CSLEA President and/of board, P.O.C. will seek repayment from Barcelona and the CAUSE / CSLEA board on behalf of every single member of the union in order to repay those funds.  It is time CAUSE / CSLEA deliver full financial records. 

Your money is not a joke to us and we will treat it with respect.  We have made it impossible for this to happen in P.O.C. because P.O.C. will publish all votes on the web-site for members to review - and every vote will be counted.  If you do not approve of something that has been going on, then the general membership of the union will be able to vote in a new President – one of our own members, who can get the job done.  Try that at CAUSE / CSLEA!!