An ongoing dispute over the results of a recent Hawaii State Teachers Association election for president and other officers to lead the teachers union has made its way to the courts.
Campbell High School teacher Corey Rosenlee, who said he was elected president of the 13,500-member union, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Circuit Court to get the HSTA to accept the results of the election and block a new vote scheduled for next week.
A status conference Thursday afternoon with Circuit Judge Gary Chang on the request for a temporary restraining order to halt the election slated for Tuesday is scheduled to be continued Friday morning.
Rosenlee’s lawsuit contends teachers’ statutory rights to organize and collectively bargain have been violated. It seeks to "vindicate the equal voting rights of local union members by respecting their recent vote."
The HSTA’s board of directors voted May 16 to reject the results of ballots cast for a new union president and other state officers, and announced it would hold a new election on Tuesday. Current HSTA President Wil Okabe had cited voting irregularities and discrepancies for the decision, including reports that some teachers did not receive their ballots.
Teachers voted electronically and by mail for two weeks in April for all races, and again earlier this month by mail for a runoff election for vice president.
Rosenlee says he and his running mates — King Kamehameha III Elementary teacher Justin Hughey and Mililani High teacher Amy Perusso, who ran for vice president and secretary-treasurer, respectively — won their races "by significant margins."
In a statement issued Wednesday, Rosenlee said "the HSTA board, after being advised of the outcome of the election, then illegally voted to reject the results of the original election."
"As the HSTA’s president-elect, it pains me to have to sue my own union, but the integrity of the HSTA is at stake and going to court is our only recourse to protect the decision of the majority of HSTA’s members," Rosenlee said.
Rosenlee had challenged current HSTA Vice President Joan Lewis, a Kapolei High teacher; Hughey ran against current HSTA Secretary-Treasurer Colleen Pasco; and Perusso ran against Osa Tui Jr., registrar at McKinley High.
Rosenlee’s lawsuit says the board’s decision to reject the results and call for a new election "occurred only after a majority of the board learned that (Rosenlee) had been elected and their preferred slate of candidates had been defeated."
HSTA Executive Director Wilbert Holck denied that claim in an email to teachers this week, saying "this assertion could not be any further from the truth."
The union on Wednesday said it was anticipating the legal challenge. Rosenlee’s group had publicly warned last week that it would seek relief from the courts if the union didn’t respond to its demands.
"We fully expect a decision in our favor," Okabe said in a statement. "Our board of directors, by a 21-8 vote, made a decision for a revote. The decision was made with care and diligence and we will continue to move forward with the elections."
Rosenlee’s lawsuit contends that decision violated the union’s bylaws because Lewis and Pasco improperly participated in the vote. HSTA bylaws, according to the lawsuit, prohibited them from voting because of their conflict of interest as candidates.
"This vote required a two-thirds majority of the entire board, (or) 20 of the 29 board members needed to vote in favor of rejecting the results," Rosenlee’s statement said. "Had only Lewis and Pasco recused themselves from this vote, as they were required to do so, the vote would have been 19 to 8, and would have failed."
The position of president is a paid post, while other HSTA board officers are not compensated. Okabe receives an annual compensation package totaling $241,706, according to the union’s 2014 tax filing with the IRS. HSTA collected more than $6.8 million in membership dues that year, the filing shows.
