**Update below with reaction from Gov. Peter Shumlin at Wednesday’s press conference**
In an email to the Vermont Public Interest Research Group’s board of directors, executive director Paul Burns slammed longtime ally Gov. Peter Shumlin, saying the gov “should be ashamed of himself” for encouraging a VPIRG employee to run for lieutenant governor.
As reported in this week’s Fair Game, Democratic lite gov candidate Cassandra Gekas (pictured) says she was fired on the spot by Paul Burns when she informed him of her candidacy. Burns maintains that Gekas resigned her position as VPIRG’s health care advocate.
After Seven Days went to press, we obtained a copy of an email Burns sent his board two weeks ago — shortly after his conversation with Gekas and the day she filed to run for office. In the email, Burns says he was “sickened” by Gekas’ move, which he calls “utterly unprofessional and dishonest.”
Far more notably, Burns rips Shumlin a new one and suggests that members of the board — which includes a number of prominent Shumlin supporters and donors — let the gov know their displeasure.
“I believe Cass was talked into this by the governor and others,” Burns writes. “He should be ashamed of himself. I hope he has a nice job waiting for her after she loses a race for which she is completely unprepared, but it’s no excuse. He deserves to hear from others who don’t appreciate this self-serving political move.”
(Complete text of email after the jump).
Shumlin and VPIRG have a history of close relations. When the former ran for governor in 2010, the latter shared with him results of polling the group had conducted about Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, drawing the ire of Shumlin’s primary opponents. VPIRG also drew criticism when Shumlin hopped aboard the group’s Mardi Gras parade float that spring.
Burns did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday. His email is copied below:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 3:57 PM
Subject: Cass is leaving VPIRG
To: VPIRG-BoardofDirectors@vpirg.org Cc: pburns@vpirg.org
Hello,
I’m sending you this quick note to tell you that Cassandra Gekas just informed me that she’s quitting VPIRG to run for Lt. Gov. I know it sounds absurd but it’s true.
I’m sorry that by the time you read this you may already have heard it elsewhere. As I said, she did not have the courtesy to provide any notice to me whatsoever (she mentioned the idea in passing a week or two ago but assured me that she had thought better of it).
This was an utterly unprofessional and dishonest move, doing great damage to VPIRG and to a lesser extent the movement for health care reform in Vermont. I am sickened by it. She had given me her word that we could count on her to be here just before we gave her a big raise last year. I let her know how important her leadership was in the office and I meant it. I put my trust in her just as each of her colleagues did.
I believe that Cass was talked into this by the governor and others. He should be ashamed of himself. I hope he has a nice job waiting for her after she loses a race for which she is completely unprepared, but it’s no excuse. He deserves to hear from others who don’t appreciate this self-serving political move.
If you speak with Cass, all I ask is that you please refrain from giving her the impression that what she’s done to VPIRG is in any way acceptable behavior. It’s not. And it will cause great pain and headache to those whom she has so thoughtlessly left behind to pick up the pieces of her program.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Paul
Paul Burns
Executive Director
VPIRG/VPIREF
141 Main Street, Suite 6
Montpelier, VT 05602
802-223-5221 ext.12
Stay tuned for reaction from the governor after his 1:30 p.m. press conference today.
**Update – 3:45 p.m.**
At his weekly press conference Wednesday afternoon, Shumlin declined to directly comment on the contents of Burns’ email, noting that, “If I responded to every email about me, we’d be having long, long press conferences.”
He did, however, push back on Burns’ contention that he had talked Gekas into running for lieutenant governor. He said that while Sen. Anthony Pollina (D/P-Washington) mentioned the idea to him at a June 6 press event, he had directed the senator to discuss the notion with his staff — not him.
Shumlin said the next he heard of Gekas’ candidacy was when aide Alex MacLean told him the candidate had filed her papers to get on the ballot. At that point, Shumlin said, he called Burns and left him a phone message — evidently after Gekas was fired.
The governor also declined to reveal exactly what he said in that message, though he said, “I know as an employer that when you have an employee that moves on to do other things, you often wish that it was different. And I was taking the point that I think it’s important that we all support young people running for office in the state.”
As for whether he feels it’s appropriate for an organization to fire an employee who runs for statewide office, Shumlin said, “I really believe that we should be doing everything as communities and employers to encourage young people and young women to run for office. I couldn’t feel more strongly about that. It really is — statewide office in Vermont is — an old boys’ club, and that’s gotta change.”
This article appears in The Animal Issue 2012.
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Seems super unproffessional to not redact his contact info. Also it seems the tenor of the article and the tenor of the email while similar are slightly different. While Mr Burns is being an a-hole, it seems he is more upset at losing a valuable team member who will most likely lose against one of the most popular state wide figures in VT politics. I am sure a paragraph about how trying to beat any incumbent much less probably the most popular one is a hard road to climb.
his contact info is right on their website.
VPIRG under Burns has become a pathetic shadow of what it used to be. Behaviour like this points out why he is so ineffective – in leading the organisation and in impacting things in Montpelier.
He burns bridges instead of building them, and losses sight of the big picture while pursuing petty grievances. Other advocacy groups working in Montpelier work around him – when they can they work with lower level staff, when they can’t they simply realise they can’t count on VPIRG to be a reliable partner in any effort.
No non-profit ED should ever write an email like this to their Board of Directors attacking a staffer and a Governor who is an ally on most issues. It demonstrates a lack of judgment that should have board members questioning why Burns is in such a leadership position.
Who is not being truthful, Gekas or Burns? Was she fired or did she quit? Especially if she still is planning to be Lt gov, we need to know her level of integrity.
Nothing new here. The people running VPIRG are temper tatrum throwing crybabies. Always nice to see it in the press, but no real news here. Everyone already knew it.
Now I sure hope this lady files a wrongful termination suit and wipes their bank account clean so we don’t have to hear from them for a while.
A ‘big raise’? Who’s footing the bill over there?
What is Burns’ problem? Whining when he loses a staff person? Shouldn’t he be proud of her for wanting to run? In any event, what right does he have to criticize her? As for Peter Shumlin, he rocks, as usual. He supports young people and young women running for office and argues that the “old boys’ club” has to change. Wow–go Shumlin!
Burns should resign and save VPIRG.
Actually, sounds to me like Burns was simply personally hurt by his staff person’s decision and in blowing off steam, wrote a letter he just shouldn’t have sent. How many of us haven’t made this same mistake? We’re just lucky enough to not have to play it out so publicly.
Didn’t you read the story? I’m not a big fan of VPIRG, but the work she was doing there was supposedly “critical,”: and he had just given her a raise in exchange for her statement that she was going to stay there and continue her work. If you were her boss and this had been done to you, you’d be furious, too.
As for Shumlin, he’s an egotistical jerk.
The raise was given last year.
Does anybody know if VPIRG has a policy prohibiting employees from holding or running for elected public office?
What don’t you understand about this sentence:
“She had given me her word that we could count on her to be here just before we gave her a big raise last year.”
She didn’t quit because (heaven forbid) someone in her family suddenly became terminally ill, or because her spouse or partner suddenly took a job in California. No, after promising to stay, she quit because she’s wants to engage in a quixotic and egomaniacal adventure: running in a race she is completely unprepared for and absolutely, positively cannot win.
What’s so hard to understand about a boss’s anger at that? VPIRG probably spent a lot of time and money recruiting her for the job and had a lot invested in her, and she must have known that.
Of course, she was free to suddenly change her mind about working there. Her boss was also free to fire her and criticize her.
VPIRG sounds like a pretty bad place to work
thoroughly endorse what terjeanderson and jcarter said…and what a kneejerk reaction. any savy ED knows that negotiation is the way to solve problems. there are a myriad of options that Burns could have chosen to conclude Gekas tenure @VPIRG.
thoroughly agree with terjeanderson and jcarter…what a kneejerk reaction from Burns. Any savy ED knows that solutions come from negotiation and compromise. VPIRG has a pattern of trying to take credit for issues while dozens of other advocacy groups have formed coalitions around them – I’ve stopped supporting the organization and this is one more reason why there needs to be a serious shake up at the top.
Very petulant reaction by Burns, who comes out looking as though (and may be) he is trying to sabotage Cassandra Gekas’s candidacy by pulling the financial rug out from under her at this critical time for her sense of confidence. I agree with several posters here, and have thought for years, that VPIRG is neither in the “public Interest’ nor an honest ‘research’ organization. It’s willingness to jump in with both feet on the side of the windfarm issue with little or no research on the results and after the fact contrary opinions of Europeans in the know about the truth regarding ‘wind’ as a panacea for the energy/global warming issue, demonstrates this admirably. VPIRGs ‘public advocacy’ image is not especially enhanced when you realize that one of the board members is a turbine entrepreneur. Contrary to his opinion ,I believe that Cassandra could win the race as her portfolio of central interests will appeal to many progressive people in this state.