IN RE: HOFFA UNITY SLATE,
Protest Decision 2001 EAD 519
Issued: October 22, 2001
OEA Case No. PR101211CA
Todd Thompson, campaign manager for the Hoffa Unity slate (the "Hoffa slate"), filed a pre-election protest on behalf of the Hoffa slate pursuant to Article XIII, Section 2(b) of the Rules for the 2000-2001 IBT International Union Delegate and Officer Election ("Rules"). The protest alleges that Diana Kilmury, a candidate for Teamsters Canada Vice President on the Leedham Rank & File Power slate (the "Leedham slate"), violated the Rules "concerning improper campaign contributions and campaign reporting requirements."
Election Administrator representatives Gwen Randall and Jason Weidenfeld investigated the protest.
Findings of Fact and Analysis
Thompson filed this protest on October 12, 2001. He claims that in October, 2001, Kilmury distributed videos of the movie "Mother Trucker" to IBT members at various worksites in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. The contributions were not mentioned in Kilmury's Campaign Contribution and Expenditure Report for the period ending September 15, 2001 ("CCER 6") or in the CCER 6 of any other Leedham campaign candidate. Thompson concludes that under these circumstances, the Hoffa campaign "must assume that copies ... were either donated improperly or were paid for out of campaign funds but not reported on her CCER."
Kilmury's contributions were revealed in an October 16, 2001 amendment to the Leedham slate's Campaign Contribution and Expenditure Report for the period ending September 30, 2001 ("CCER 7"). The amendment states that Kilmury made an in-kind contribution to the Leedham campaign of 100 Mother Trucker videos with a total value of $309.36. Based on this amendment, Christie Bailey of the Hoffa campaign questions whether Kilmury paid fair market value for the copyrighted videotapes and whether she paid for far fewer videos than she distributed.
Kilmury told our investigator that she purchased 100 Mother Trucker videos for $492 (Canadian), a figure confirmed by Jane Clarke of Barna-Asper Productions, the company from which Kilmury purchased the videos. At the then-current exchange rate of approximately $0.63 (United States) to $1 (Canadian), the video cost amounted to $309.96 (United States). We find that Kilmury purchased 100 videos for the amount listed in her CCER, allowing for minor differences in that amount due to exchange rate fluctuations.
We also find that Kilmury did not distribute more Mother Trucker videos than she purchased. Kilmury alleges that only the 100 Mother Trucker videos that she purchased were distributed. In contrast to the limited distribution of the Mother Trucker tapes, Kilmury admits to distributing at various worksites a different videotape, that of the IBT General President candidate acceptance speeches and the candidate forum held on September 21, 2001. See Candidate Forums, 2001 EAD 428 (August 22, 2001), aff'd, 01 EAM 77 (September 25, 2001). We have found no evidence to contradict Kilmury's claims.
Accordingly, we DENY the protest.
Any interested party not satisfied with this determination may request a hearing before the Election Appeals Master within two (2) working days of receipt of this decision. The parties are reminded that, absent extraordinary circumstances, no party may rely upon evidence that was not presented to the Office of the Election Administrator in any such appeal. Requests for a hearing shall be made in writing, shall specify the basis for the appeal, and shall be served upon:
Kenneth Conboy
Election Appeals Master
Latham & Watkins
Suite 1000
885 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10022
Fax: 212-751-4864
Copies of the request for hearing must be served upon all other parties, as well as upon the Election Administrator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 727 15th Street NW, Tenth Floor, Washington, DC 20005 (facsimile: 202-454-1501), all within the time prescribed above. A copy of the protest must accompany the request for hearing.
William A. Wertheimer, Jr.
William A. Wertheimer, Jr.
Election Administrator
cc: Kenneth Conboy
2001 EAD 519
DISTRIBUTION LIST VIA UPS NEXT DAY AIR:
Patrick Szymanski
IBT General Counsel
25 Louisiana Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20001
Bradley T. Raymond
Finkel, Whitefield, Selik,
Raymond, Ferrara & Feldman
32300 Northwestern Highway
Suite 200
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
J. Douglas Korney
Korney & Heldt
30700 Telegraph Road
Suite 1551
Bingham Farms, MI 48025
Barbara Harvey
Penobscot Building
Suite 1800
645 Griswold
Detroit, MI 48226
Betty Grdina
Yablonski, Both & Edelman
Suite 800
1140 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tom Leedham c/o Stefan Ostrach
110 Mayfair Lane
Eugene, OR 97404
Todd Thompson
209 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20003
Matt Ginsburg
P.O Box 6678
Arlington, VA 22206
James L. Hicks, Jr., P.C.
Suite 1100
2777 N. Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, TX 75207
IBT Local 155
490 E. Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5T 1X3
Canada
Diana Kilmury
2612 E. 47th Ave.
Vancouver, BC V5S 1C1
Canada
Gwen Randall
421 Seventh Ave., SW
Calgary, AB T2P 4K9
Canada