Sad irony marks fall of Pat Santeramo, Broward Teachers Union boss

With contract talks stalled and his membership growing restless, Broward Teachers Union president Pat Santeramo in December 2009 authorized mailing 6,000 postcards to School Board members that read: "Federal corruption probe, who will be next?"

The reference to two board members facing criminal charges sparked immediate anger.

"I told him, 'That is over the top,''' said Maureen Dinnen, a board member and former union leader herself. But 10 months later, at a union rally in Plantation, he held up a pair of handcuffs and suggested they should replace the apple on the board's stationery.

In hindsight, Santeramo's final days as the head of the 11,000-member union seem sadly ironic. Earlier this month, the 64-year-old union boss was the one led away in handcuffs, charged with stealing about $300,000 from the very members he promised to defend.

Santeramo said he is innocent of the charges, which include racketeering, grand theft, campaign contribution violations and money laundering. Through his attorney, Ben Kuehne, he declined an interview request.

To police investigators, the saga of Pat Santeramo is a story of unbridled greed. According to the Broward State Attorney's Office, though paid an annual salary of up to $189,000, Santeramo wanted more. So he concocted a scheme with a Coral Springs construction company through which he diverted $165,000 in union funds to himself. He got kickbacks of up to $20,000 when Marstan Construction changed light bulbs, sprayed for ants, dyed a carpet or repaired an elevator. He also schemed to pick up $121,000 in accrued sick and vacation time with a fraudulent memo, investigators said.

Much of the stolen money, prosecutors said, went to pay for a $587,000 vacation home that he and his wife, Pasco County union leader Lynne Webb, bought in Martin County.

His longtime friends and admirers find the accusations hard to believe.

"I'm mortified, shocked by his arrest," said Broward commissioner Lois Wexler, a former School Board member who regularly lunched with Santeramo. "What I am morally struggling with is, 'Pat, how in the world did you allow this to happen?'"

But many others saw Santeramo's fall coming.

"He was arrogant," said Leslie Janin-Starr, one of nine union executive board members who called for his resignation following a November 2011 auditors report that showed Santeramo blew through $3.8 million in reserve funds over the previous six years. "He ran the place like a dictatorship. He was the emperor.''

Added board member Hal Krantz: "He wanted things his way. And he would use his gavel to shut off discussion."

A native of New York, Santeramo moved to Florida to wield a baton, not a gavel. He was hired in 1978 as band director at Walker Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, and taught there for 17 years before joining the union fulltime.

He became interim president in 2001 after Tony Gentile was charged in a child pornography sting. He went on to be elected to the post four times.

Soon after moving into the president's office, Santeramo decorated it with posters from his favorite films and television shows: The Godfather, The Sopranos and Goodfellas.

Although some visitors questioned the wisdom of flaunting a cliched movieland Mafia theme in the office of a union boss, Santeramo embraced the charismatic and autocratic style the images suggested.

But to many teachers, board members and union staff, the image was misleading. They point to a failure of leadership that had its roots in economic decline and led to teacher layoffs and plummeting membership. And they blame Santeramo's inability to get along with former superintendant Jim Notter.

"Pat might have been a nice guy, but I don't feel he did a good job," said Donna Shubert, a kindergarten teacher at McNab Elementary. "We were paying $13,000 for health care, got no raise in four years, all while they are telling us they got the best deal possible."

Dinnen said that during recent contract negotiations, Santeramo "was not helpful. He didn't participate."

Facing two criminal investigations and a union expulsion vote, he resigned Dec.6.

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-pat-santeramo-fall-20120727,0,4882867.story?track=rss

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