Northwest talks rack up hefty bills
First Posted:
By Mark Guydish [email protected] Reporter
UNION TWP. – In the heat of public debate about contract talks during last month’s Northwest Area School Board meeting, teacher Bryan Glahn asked how much board lead negotiator attorney Richard Galtman was paid, and warned a raucous crowd: “Be prepared to have your eyes opened. You will be shocked.”
On Monday, Galtman released details of district payments to the firm of Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams – from when the firm represented the board in April 2006 to November 2007, the latest billing period. The district has spent $74,748, with two-thirds of that – $50,916 – for work regarding the teachers union.
For comparison – and there are caveats – union lead negotiator Matt Gruenloh makes an annual salary of $84,462.
Gruenloh, a new uniserve representative for the regional office of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, gets a flat salary for work with 11 regional unions, regardless of hours on the job. He noted that on the day of the last board meeting, March 27, he started work at 7:30 a.m. in Stroudsburg and wasn’t home until nearly 1:30 the next morning, thanks in part to talks with Galtman and the board after the meeting.
A former Pocono Mountain School District teacher and union president, Gruenloh also said his salary is paid by the PSEA, with money from 166,000 members statewide, not simply from the local or regional districts he helps represent. “My part of the bargaining process is not paid by taxpayers,” he said.
Critics, however, routinely argue that union support comes from teacher salaries, which in turn are paid with tax dollars.
The payments for Galtman’s work go to his firm, not directly to him, and cover a wide range of services. Along with the nearly $51,000 for union work, the firm was paid $21,391 for work as board solicitor, $2,326 for work on the support staff union contract, and $115 for work on personnel issues.
In an e-mail accompanying the billing breakdown, Galtman also noted the teacher-union work covered negotiations and related legal work including state-mandated arbitration and fact finding with the union, work on lawsuits the union filed to block withdrawal from the Northeast Pennsylvania School District Health Trust and a salary arbitration appeal, and “defense of the district against baseless unfair labor practice charges.”
Gruenloh said the two sides are still trying to set up a bargaining session and that the only problem is scheduling conflicts with those involved.
The union contract expired in August 2005, and the teachers staged their second strike – lasting one day – on April 1.
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Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7161
