Opinion: Pro-Union Doesn’t Mean Don’t Ask Questions. A Member on the SEIU Local 500 Treasurer Rerun.

Anonymous opinion submission. Moderately MOCO knows the author’s identity.

Editor’s note: This opinion piece endorses Oriole Saah in the SEIU Local 500 treasurer rerun. Moderately MOCO does not endorse either candidate. The other candidate, Leshia Murray, is the Local’s current treasurer and signed its most recent financial report to the U.S. Department of Labor in that role. On October 14, Moderately MOCO emailed SEIU Local 500’s election committee asking to be put in touch with Murray, and had not received a reply by publication.

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If you’ve ever looked at the dues coming out of your paycheck and wondered what you get for it, you’re not anti-union. You’re paying attention.

I’m a proud union member. Unions won us fair contracts and protection on the job, and they give us a voice we’d never have on our own. But I know a lot of members who feel disconnected. They pay every month, hear from leadership mostly at election time or when dues go up, and get “trust us” when they ask where the money goes. When members stop believing the union belongs to them, the union gets weaker. Walking away won’t fix that. Holding leadership accountable will.

So I want to talk about the Local 500 treasurer race.

Every year our Local files a financial report with the U.S. Department of Labor, and anyone can look it up. In the fiscal year that ended September 2025, Local 500 spent about $734,000 more than it brought in. It also ran a deficit the year before. Spending is up about 31% over two years while income has stayed almost flat, and our cash on hand fell by about a fifth in one year.

Over that same stretch, our president’s salary went from $138,970 to $206,897. That’s roughly a 49% raise. Her total compensation is now $221,104. And now her team is pushing for higher dues. Stay tuned for that one.

A lot of us are paraeducators, support staff, adjuncts and childcare providers. The Local is made up of a lot of different members. Most of us will never get a 49% raise. I don’t begrudge union leaders a fair salary for a hard job. But when the union is spending more than it takes in, asking members to pay more shouldn’t be the first move. We deserve to know what’s driving the spending and what our dues are actually paying for.

One of the candidates for treasurer has been asking those questions. In June 2025, internal charges were filed against her resulting in a re-run. Make of the timing what you will.

Good leaders want people around who question how things are done, because that’s how mistakes get caught. From what I’ve seen, our current leadership would rather have people who go along. One campaign asks whether we want a real treasurer or an “auto pen” that signs the checks, and I think that’s the right question.

One candidate has done this job before. She served two terms as our treasurer and wrote the Local’s expense policy, which the Executive Board adopted to tighten up spending and budgeting. She helped set up a fair process for filling board vacancies and sat at the table for full MCPS contract bargaining. Outside the union she was treasurer of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs for three terms. She’s worked at MCPS for more than 20 years, and the treasurer position doesn’t pay a salary.

The other candidate was a school administrative secretary, and part of that job is keeping the school’s activity fund books. MCPS audits of her school from 2019 to 2023 are public, and they found the same financial control problems coming up again and again: purchases made without prior approval, payments made before anyone confirmed the goods arrived, and field trip money that wasn’t reconciled. In fairness, those audits go to the principal, who is responsible for school funds, no money was found missing, and plenty of schools get similar findings. Still, this kind of control work is the core of a treasurer’s job, and repeat findings matter.

If you’ve ever felt like your dues go into a black box, this is your chance to do something about it while staying in the union. Ballots for the treasurer rerun have been mailed to members’ homes, and the count is October 28, so please send yours back soon.

If your ballot never showed up, email the Election Committee at seiuelectcomm@seiu500.org with your full name, work location and mailing address, and they can help you get one. The election rules and other details are on the Local’s site at seiu500.org/2nd-election-rerun-2026.

I’m voting for Oriole Saah because I want a treasurer who keeps asking where our money goes. You can read more about her at oriole4treasurer.com.

My opinion only. I’m not speaking for SEIU or any employer. Financial figures come from Local 500’s LM-2 reports to the Department of Labor (file 542-923) at unionreports.gov. The school audits are posted at audits.montgomeryschoolsmd.org.

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