Runoff Election Declared In ATC Association Race For President

By Daniel Baxter

August 2, 2009, Washington – A run-off election was declared between NATCA Presidential candidates Ruth Marlin and Paul Rinaldi. Running for the office were current NATCA President Patrick Forrey, former Executive Vice President Ruth Marlin and current Executive Vice President Paul Rinaldi.

Another runoff election was declared between Central Region Vice Presidential candidates Andy Heifner (controller and NATCA Facility Representative at St. Louis Terminal Radar Approach Control or TRACON) and Kevin Peterson (controller and NATCA Facility Representative at Kansas City International Airport).

In a runoff election, NATCA’s National Election Committee (charged with the tally of all ballots in both the original and runoff election) will supervise the distribution of ballots – which will be distributed no later than 16 days after the National Election Committee has ruled on any challenges or protests of the election or, if there are no challenges or protests, within 16 days after submission of the National Election Committee’s report.

Marked ballots will be distributed in accordance with NATCA’s ballot collection procedure – charging the election committee with the collection and counting of all ballots. Ballots will be distributed to the membership and due back no later than 30 days after the date of distribution. Those officers winning runoff elections will take office 30 days after the results are finalized.

Elected as Executive Vice President, Patricia Gilbert has worked her entire 20-year career at Houston Center. A long-time union activist, Gilbert is currently serving as the Chair of NATCA’s National Legislative Committee.

In addition to electing a president and executive vice president, NATCA members in good standing vote for their respective regional vice presidents (RVP) as well. Those elected, including the Executive Vice President, on the National Executive Board serve three-year terms, which will begin on Sept. 1.

Those new candidates winning the offices of regional vice president were as follows:

Alaskan Region: Larry Lescanec, controller and NATCA Facility Representative at Anchorage TRACON  

Northwest Mountain Region: Jim Ullman, controller and Facility Representative at Seattle Center.

Running unopposed for the office of Southwest Regional Vice President was Tim Smith, a controller at Forth Worth Center who currently serves as one of two Alternate Regional Vice Presidents for the Southwest Region.

Winning re-election in contested RVP races were Region X (non-controller bargaining units) Vice President Mike MacDonald, New England Regional Vice President Mike Robicheau and Southern Regional Vice President Victor Santore.

Running unopposed in their re-election campaigns were incumbent Eastern Regional Vice President Phil Barbarello, Great Lakes Regional Vice President Bryan Zilonis and Western Pacific Regional Vice President Hamid Ghaffari.