Business Agent Response on Election Committee Selection

the provision that you have quoted from the AFSCME Constitution is from Appendix C of the International Constitution.  Appendix C is binding on any AFSCME Local that does not have a constitution of its own formally adopted by the International President.  In this case, Local 101 does have a constitution formally approved by the President.  The Local 101 constitution does not exclude the Local President from serving on election committees, except for when she/he is running for Local office.  It has been quite common for the Local President to serve, even chair Local election committees.

The same is true for the Employees Association.  There is no such exclusion in the EA bylaws – in fact your bylaws state that the president serves as an ex-officio of all EA Committees:

“Section 1. Duties of the President:

.   shall be the presiding officer of this organization and shall

preside over all Executive Board and all General Membership meetings.

.   shall have general supervision of the affairs of this organization

in accordance with these bylaws.

.   shall appoint the chair, co-chair and members for all standing

committees and special committees subject to the approval of the Executive Board.

.   shall serve as an ex-officio member of all committees.

.   shall give a full report of all activities at each regular Executive

Board and Membership meetings.

.   shall represent this organization before boards, committees,

departments, and other such official bodies as may be designated by the Executive Board.”

During the time I have been your business agent, it has also been common for your chapter president to serve on your election committees.  As with the Local president, the chapter president is excluded from serving on an election committee if she/he is a candidate.