Teachers Union Leader Removed from TRS Board

A bad session got even worse for teachers’ union leader Henry Mabry Thursday evening as he was removed from the Teachers Retirement System board.

Republicans have been considering bringing the bill up for some time now. They have long characterized Mabry’s presence on the board as a conflict of interest because of his position as the AEA union boss — a paid lobbyist.

There’s an inherent conflict of interest and breach of fiduciary duty in a paid lobbyist having a guaranteed seat on TRS.

— Bryan Taylor (@SenBryanTaylor) May 9, 2013

Republicans and Democrats in the House are said to have come to an agreement that the bill would not be brought to the floor until the final day of the session. However, when Democrats began moving toward filibustering the proposed House special order calendar, going back on their end of the deal, Republican leadership decided to bring the bill up.

After Democrats did all they could to stop it, the House passed the bill 61-42. It was then sent up to the Senate.

But before the House had even passed the bill, insiders say that RSA head David Bronner was working the phones to rally the votes in the Senate to secure the bill’s passage.

Bronner and Mabry engaged in a fierce covert battle earlier this year after Mabry attempted to takeover of the Teachers’ Retirement System board. The two Mabry-backed candidates were trounced in Board elections, but clearly there is still bad blood between the two men.

When the Senate took up the bill, Democrat Senator Roger Bedford immediately went to the mic to tote the AEA’s water.

“It shocks me the hatred that comes forth from the GOP toward teachers and support personnel in this state,” Senator Roger Bedford said. The bill actually added a support personel representative to the TRS Board.

Bedford also blamed the “Tea Party crazies,” for being a perverse influence on Senate Republicans. He suggested Republican Senators stop looking at their Twitter to see what their “GOP Master” wants them to do.

After Bedford’s rant, Republicans got the exact number of votes they needed to invoke cloture (21) and ultimately passed the bill 17-14.

“Bronner still has some stroke,” an insider quipped to Yellowhammer after the bill passed. “Whoever told Mabry to take him and the entire GOP on gave him some bad advice.”

Here’s the bottom line though, folks: the AEA boss had no business being on that board, just like his predecessor had no business getting $1.374 million dollars of taxpayer money from the DROP program.

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