The AFSCME International Judicial Panel has cancelled an election do-over at Local 44 and will take up a complaint alleging improper use of union resources, The Brew has learned.

The decision flips on its head the panel’s previous ruling, issued on September 16, that allowed Local 44 to invalidate last month’s win by insurgent Stancil McNair after his opponent, Local 44 Vice President Trevor Taylor, filed a protest.

Today’s ruling represents a rebuke to AFSCME Maryland Council 3 President Patrick Moran.

He has presided over the local’s affairs amid efforts to disqualify McNair from a union position and a whispering campaign alleging that Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming tipped the scales in favor of McNair through her social media posts about the August 23 election (here and here).

On Monday, Baltimore attorney Thiru Vignarajah, representing McNair, filed a nine-page complaint to Carla Insinga, chair of AFSCME’s Judicial Panel, that called any new election “a manifest public disgrace . . . designed to allow union bosses to handpick their own.”

Citing affidavits regarding alleged electioneering violations by Taylor, Vignarajah threatened to file a court injunction unless the international stopped the October 4 vote re-do.

“Baltimore Local 44 is directed to suspend any further elections, runoff elections or rerun elections until this election protest investigation is completed”  – Letter from Carla Insinga.

In a letter copied today to NcNair, Taylor, Moran and other AFSCME members, Insinga wrote:

“I agree that in these circumstances a stay of any election is warranted at this time. Accordingly, Baltimore Local 44 is directed to suspend any further elections, runoff elections or rerun elections until this election protest investigation is completed and a written decision is issued by the investigating officer.”

She said a Zoom meeting will be held on October 9 to address the complaint lodged by McNair that Taylor used the union directory of addresses to email members to boost his candidacy a day before the August 23 election.

“I will serve as the investigating officer in this matter,” Insinga wrote, noting that “decisions and orders of the Judicial Panel are final unless and until they are overturned by an appellate body as directed by the International Constitution.”

The decision means that McNair will remain, at least for now, Local 44 president.

Insinga’s statement did not address the “gag order” placed on Local 44 members, which bars them from speaking to the public or the media about the election.

Citing the gag order, McNair declined to comment today.

Moran did not respond to written questions from The Brew about the decision.