Public Employee Press

Delegates elect Harper and Bentley
to DC 37 Executive Board as VPs

DC 37 delegates voted June 27 to elect Local 1502 President Melvin Bentley and Local 1251 President Carolyn Harper as vice presidents on the union’s Executive Board.

Bentley and Harper will serve to early 2007 to fill out the terms of Local 299 President Louis Sbar and Local 1321 President John Socha, who retired earlier this year.

Harper defeated Local 384 President Esther Tucker and Bentley defeated Local 1455 President Michael DeMarco.

Bentley had earlier defeated DeMarco but the judicial panel of AFSCME, DC 37’s parent union, ordered a re-run after the results were protested.

Bentley, a Special Patrolman Sergeant at the Brooklyn Museum of Art for nearly 20 years, is a past executive board member, chair of the DC 37 Housing Committee, co-chair of the DC 37 Caribbean Heritage Committee and a trustee of the DC 37 Cultural Institutions Health and Security Plan Trust, which funds welfare benefits at city cultural institutions.

Harper, a Secretary in the Dept. of Education, served as a shop steward, board member and vice president of Local 1251 before becoming president in 1999. She co-chairs the DC 37 Disability Advisory Committee and serves as a trustee on the DC 37 Health and Security Trust Fund.

The DC 37 Election Committee oversaw the June 27 vote, which was conducted by the independent American Arbitration Association. Local 1549 Executive Vice President Lenora Gates chairs the committee, which includes Deborah T. Lane (Local 384), Phyllis McLean (957), Joe Napolitano (1320) and Joe Puleo (983).