Steve Confer, the executive director of the Clark County Classroom Teachers Association (CCCTA) in Nevada, finds himself accused of misusing funds from the UniServ staff union fund while he worked for the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) in 1996. According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Confer wrote himself checks from the professional staff organization’s (PSO) fund and used the union’s credit card to charge personal expenses — for a total of $53,000. The staff union, of which Confer was treasurer, filed an insurance claim to recover part of the losses. The claim shows the expenditures were disguised with false entries in the union’s check register. Confer claims he cashed out his retirement plan to repay the money.

Confer claims the expenses resulted from a secret investigation of ISTA. "They knew this was going to be an expensive ‘black’ operation," said Confer. "I acted on my belief that this was the mission I was given." The board of the staff union denies knowledge of any covert operation. Confer said there were no records of his investigation, that he couldn’t remember when it began, and that he has since destroyed all the information he gathered. He claims to have followed people around and dug around in garbage cans during his investigation. "The things I was doing on behalf of the PSO were not the most attractive things," he said. Confer refused to say how a charge of $287.16 to a Fort Wayne shoe store or tickets to Epcot Center at Walt Disney World aided his investigation.

This is not Confer’s first caper. In 1996, he filed suit on behalf of the Fort Wayne Education Association against Fort Wayne Community Schools (FWCS) for contracting with a private school, Richard Milburn High School, to provide remedial help to at-risk students. On the evening of May 1, 1996, Confer decided to visit the Milburn school. What happened next depends on whom you believe. Confer said that when he identified himself, an offered tour of the facilities was withdrawn and that he was asked to leave, which he did. The police report filed by Milburn’s director, Carolyn Glossenger, claims Confer harassed employees, pushing past them. The report stated that Confer smelled of liquor and threatened to return as he was leaving. This prompted Glossenger to phone police.

Confer claimed that the police report was the work of FWCS Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn. In a press release, Confer wrote: "We have learned that Dr. Fowler-Finn does not deal well with criticism and will often personally attack his critics."

+ A story by Mark Maremont in the Wall Street Journal indicates that at least the idea of union "black operations" is not the figment of Steve Confer’s imagination. The story details the role of Hoffa operative Richard Leebove in uncovering the misuse of dues to benefit the campaign of Teamster President Ron Carey. Leebove cultivated informants at Teamsters headquarters in Washington, who supplied him with confidential documents and computer files. He used false identities to extract information from Teamster contributors. Government investigators credit Leebove with uncovering the money trail from union funds, to assorted individuals and advocacy groups, to the Carey campaign.

+ The NEA Executive Committee approved the Colorado Education Association’s use of reduced dues to aid efforts to organize the Boulder Valley Paraeducator Association.

+ Looks as though NEA will need to gin up another "Strategic Association Response to Extremism." No sooner has NEA President Bob Chase’s response to a critical article been printed in Redbook, when that other purveyor of anti-public education propaganda — Good Housekeeping — published "When Teacher Gets an F" in its January 1998 issue. The article includes a sidebar entitled "What Parents Can Do," which includes the phone number of the Center for Education Reform because, as the article says, "A lone parent can hardly buck the power of the teachers’ unions." Pencils are reportedly being sharpened at NEA headquarters.