Community Education Center Association

Paul Martin resigns. Article by Mark Hayden

Nov 05, 2002

On Friday, October 25, 2002, I received an e-mail from the President of PCC with a concern about the content of the recent CEC Association Perspectives newsletter. It was in regard to the publication in the newsletter of CTA "advertsing". The Association was given the directive to "scrupulously avoid discussing, promoting, or refuting any collective bargaining issues (generally described as salaries, wages, and working conditions). The alternative was to face dissolution of the Association.

On Monday, October 28 at noon I called a meeting of the Association officers to discuss this issue, and offered to resign from the Presidency. President-elect and Perspectives editor Paul Martin was not present, and treasurer Ray Kidd and secretary Naomi Garcia urged me to ask Paul to drop CTA references from the newsletter.

I talked with Paul and he recommended that we contact the CTA first, and that our first ammendment rights were being violated. At that point, I again offered to resign as I do not wish to escalate the matter and place the Association in an adversarial role with the administration.

Later that afternoon Paul stated he would resign as editor/publisher of "Perspectives" and as president-elect for the "greater good of the Association."

On October 29, I notified the PCC President that the "Perspectives" newsletter would be discontinued and that the editor had resigned.

Where do we go from here? The membership will need to decide upon a course of action at the next meeting, November 13, 2002. Please attend.