Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 | 2 a.m.
A union that represents teachers in Clark County is raising concerns that a new School Board member could have a conflict of interest because she works for an organization with ties to a competing union.
The Clark County Education Association (CCEA) sent a letter to the board Monday outlining its concerns about Lisa Guzman, who was sworn in the same day to represent District A.
Guzman is assistant executive director of the Nevada State Education Association, a statewide union of educators. She was previously executive director of the Education Support Employees Association, a union for Clark County School District staff.
CCEA requested that Guzman recuse herself from votes that have anything to do with the two unions.
“Each of these organizations now stands to benefit from votes that Ms. Guzman can make as a trustee,” the letter from CCEA says.
Guzman said she was in the process of asking the Nevada Commission of Ethics for an opinion about simultaneously serving as a School Board member and assistant executive director of the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA).
“I’ll take their recommendation seriously, and I’ll bring it back to legal counsel, and to NSEA, and we’ll go from there. But we don’t foresee that being an issue,” she said.
CCEA also asked Guzman to recuse herself from votes involving Teamsters Local 14, a CCSD support staff union that competes with the Education Support Employees Association.
Guzman resigned as executive director of the Education Support Employees Association and hasn’t been in the position since Dec. 1, but CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita said Guzman’s resignation was irrelevant because the Education Support Employees Association is an affiliate of the Nevada State Education Association.
“They pay union dues to NSEA. Those dues pay her salary,” Vellardita said.
CCEA has been in ongoing litigation with the Nevada State Education Association and its parent union — National Education Association — since 2018 when CCEA broke ties and refused to pay membership fees. The conflict involves a legal battle for millions of dollars. CCEA and an affiliate of Nevada State Education Association compete for bargaining power with the Clark County School District.
CCEA asked that Guzman recuse herself from any votes involving the National Education Association of Southern Nevada, which was formed after CCEA disaffiliated from the Nevada State Education Association. Vellardita called the organization a “fake pop-up group” that was created to steal exclusive bargaining rights for teachers from CCEA.
“When we broke away and ended our contract with them, the very next day NSEA and NEA created a rival organization,” Vellardita said.
Vicki Kreidel, president of the National Education Association of Southern Nevada, said the union is autonomous.
"CCEA would like people to believe that NEA of Southern Nevada and NSEA are the same organization. But it's absolutely not true. We have our own charter, officers, board of directors and members. We're a local, they're our state organization," she said.
Guzman denied being involved in the conflict.
“They broke off from us and decided that they didn’t want to be a part of us, which is completely fine. And, when they broke off from us, I guess there was an issue that I was not involved with,” she said.
The Nevada State Education Association lost at least 11,000 members when CCEA broke away and became an independent organization.
CCEA endorsed Guzman’s opponent, Liberty Leavitt, in November’s election. Guzman received 70,873 votes, while Leavitt received 62,148.
