Challengers in '372' Vote Bank on Bigger Turnout Despite Single Polling Site

Challengers in '372' Vote Bank on Bigger Turnout Despite Single Polling Site

By MICHELLE FRIEDMAN

Candidates for president of Local 372 of District Council 37 are intensifying their efforts with the June 11 election looming. Incumbent Local 372 and District Council 37 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa is attempting to secure a fourth term after nine years in office, while challengers Larry Luther Davis and Jesse Teitler claim the local is plagued by corruption and in desperate need of change.

FIGHT THE POWER: Larry Luther Davis (left) and Jesse Teitler are both challenging Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa's re-election bid, claiming that she has suppressed democracy, most notably by confining elections to a single voting site even though just over 2 percent of the union's 25,000 members have showed up to cast ballots in the previous two contests.

The election will be conducted at a single polling place - DC 37's Barclay St. headquarters - far removed from many of the schools where union members work. In the days before the election, the challengers have shifted from calling for a mail-ballot election to mobilizing members to make the trip to lower Manhattan to vote.

Cost-Conscious or Undemocratic?

Ms. Montgomery-Costa claims the cost of a mail ballot - more than $60,000 - would be too great, but her rivals claim her primary motive is to limit turnout. Slightly more than two percent of Local 372's members voted in the past two elections.

"Yes, I have given up on mail-in ballots with her in office," Mr. Davis said. "But when I become president, the first thing I'll do is authorize mail-in ballots. Nobody should be stuck without good service."

"I think members are going to be turning out, and they might even turn out in record numbers," said Mr. Teitler, despite the single polling place. "People are going to be taking buses and public transportation and car-pooling. People are certainly making an effort."

"For the first time in a long time, I have been talking to people on my travels and seeing hope," Mr. Teitler added. "It is nice to see people getting together and saying that the administration isn't the union; we are the union."

'She's Running Scared'

Local 372 dissident and avid Teitler supporter Tony Ferina said, "Costa is really seeing the writing on the walls and she is running scared." According to Mr. Ferina, she is attempting to boost her standing with rank-and-file members by holding borough-wide high school meetings for the first time since she took office in 1999.

"Costa is going to high schools and saying how great the union is," Mr. Ferina said. "They have failed. In Manhattan, only 10 people showed up. In Staten Island, they couldn't even hold the meeting because they had no permit."

Mr. Teitler believes that members opting not to attend their regular district meetings held four times a year and the borough-wide high school meetings recently held by Ms. Montgomery-Costa "shows how disenchanted members are. If they thought they were going to get valuable information, they would be there."

Ms. Montgomery-Costa did not respond to calls seeking comment.