The Crack Team has come across information concerning Francesco Portelos' forays into his attempts to corner the UFT nurses vote that is just so beneath contempt, but worse, could have put patient's lives in danger.

As was reported here on November 5th as well as on the Portelos blog Portelos ventured into a Staten Island hospital trolling for the nurses vote. Remember that one? The one in which Portelos blew the dog whistle in his own hyperbolic manner that he was to be drummed out of the UFT? From Portelos' blog in which he is being denounced at the UFT exec board meeting...

“…AND I AM APPALLED…THAT SOMEONE IN THIS ROOM WOULD DARE CALL OUR NURSES, DURING WORK HOURS TO PUSH THEIR POLITICAL AGENDA, WHILE THEY ARE TAKING CARE OF SICK PATIENTS, AND PUTTING THOSE PATIENT’S LIVES AT RISK!”

"…the phone calls to the nurses are monitored and recorded. They violated our contract and could now face disciplinary charges. A cease and desist should be ordered and a full investigation by the board!”

The Crack Team has learned more about that night.

Originally we had assumed that Portelos was either; a) having acquired cell phone numbers called the nurses on their cell phones, or b) called the nurses at their stations on the patient floors. We were wrong. It was worse.

Portelos, as always thinking about himself first, attempted to reach out to nurses by calling the Neo-Natal Unit, the ICU, and the Operating Room. Think about it. Two units where the most vulnerable patients in a hospital are were forced to take a back seat to Portelos' ego.

Think about it. Portelos by his actions put patients lives in jeopardy. Yes, only by the grace of God, there were no emergencies, but what could have happened in the few seconds that a nurse took the time to answer a useless phone call from Portelos if a patient flat lined in ICU? If a baby stopped breathing in Neo-Natal? If a nurse preparing to assist a surgeon on an operation was distracted enough to forget an instrument, an instruction, or some other matter of importance?

It would not matter to Portelos as long has he was the center of attention.

Which of course happened a few weeks later at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn.

This time Portelos was brave enough to show his face. Walking down the corridors on the patients floors, or as Portelos wrote in this piece a few weeks after the Staten Island affair;

"One of them directed me to the staffing room for the nurses. I assumed it was something similar to a teacher’s lounge. As a went back-and-forth across the lobby of Lutheran Medical Center, to find the staff lounge..."

But is this true? For what was Portelos actually doing on the patient floors? As Portelos shared;

"I went to visit my grandmother who was recuperating at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn."

The Crack Team has confirmed that there was no grandma at Lutheran that night. Now, grandma might have been across the street at the nursing home, but grandma at Lutheran came from someone's world of make believe.

Walking through patient floors where patients are being cared for put not only the nurses in a vulnerable position but the patients and their loved ones as well. He violated the privacy patients, their families, and their health care providers expect and demand.

But eventually it all came to an end for Portelos;

“Can I help you with something sir? Can we ask your business here?”

“I can’t believe she got security involved. I’m here visiting my grandmother who’s recuperating from hip surgery. I’m also running for president of the United Federation of Teachers. I thought to drop off some flyers since we represent nurses here.” I told them.

“Sir, if we see you here again we’re gonna have to remove you."

See right there you could tell grandma is all fictional.  Two things gave it away. If he was truly there for grandma, security would have asked him to cease and desist and stay with grandma. But there is something more telling. (Seriously, where is the line between fantasy and reality with him?)

Portelos who is so good at sharing every tidbit that he "believes" happened that night at Lutheran never said anything about having to leave grandma that evening. Never added something like, "I couldn't even say goodbye to grandma," or "I asked if I could at least say goodbye to grandma." Quite interesting.

What was the hospital supposed to do? To allow a stranger with no business in the hospital up on the patients floors? Be allowed to walk into private areas of the hospital? There are incidents all the time in hospitals. We live in an age in which hospitals are considered soft targets, baby abductors troll hospitals, crime happens in hospitals. You just can't leisurely walk around a hospital and troll nurses.

Portelos not only put patients lives and health at risk but the careers of nurses as well. The hospital on Staten Island and Lutheran are PRIVATE HOSPITALS and have different work rules ans free speech rules than public hospitals.

Nurses can be disciplined, nurses (As well as the union) can be seen as reckless if there are focusing on the inanity of Portelos instead of their patients.

There is no politicking at private hospital. Patients might be offended if they see a sign, leaflet, etc.., that goes against their belief system. But politicking is not permissible of a private hospital, especially during when nurses are on duty.

Which can make one wonder would Portelos walk into a classroom while a teacher is teaching to spew about himself? Would Portelos call a teacher while that teacher is teaching? Nope and nope.

But, he would call and harangue nurses and staff members to blabber about himself when these people are the ones that are at the front lines of patients lives. Nurses can't be distracted while they are on duty. Their only priority is their patients which of course Portelos fails to realize. 

More and more we see that Portelos has neither the maturity, temperament, nor the skills to be a leader. He chooses to lead by fear and intimidation which are not what anyone wants in a leader.

As you have just read, what is most important his himself and his vendetta against the UFT. Remember this, if Randi got him a gig at the UFT there is no UFT Solidarity.

No matter how it is sliced, Portelos put patients at risk and kept nurses from doing their duty. What more needs to be said. Except..

Portelos > Patients lives.

Dang, just when we here at SBSB thought we have seen it all along come Francisco Portelos with a treatise masked in martyrdom, untruths, and narcissism.

Martyrdom, untruths, and narcissism associated with Portelos you ask? Of course. But seeing is believing and one must read it all.

And one must read the SBSB analysis of the gibberish.

Welcome to the grand illusion/Come on in and see what's happening/Pay the price, get your tickets for the show

Our grassroots support is ever growing. We are in schools in every district, from early childhood to high school and gaining more and more retiree supporters daily.

No it's not. We here at SBSB call bullocks! Schools in every district? So what? Big deal.Hmm, let us see. There are about 33 districts or so multiply it by one school in each district and you have....33.

But to be fair, as Portelos was quoted as saying,  

"...it was too early to quantify the slate’s support, but counted about 100 active members, a number that he said sounded low, but was high compared to other groups."

We apologize for claiming 1 member in each district. There are 3.03 members in each district. 

The stage is set, the band starts playing

Please excuse my language, but our sources are telling us our “campaign is scaring the sh*t out of people.”

Yes, your campaign is scaring the shit out of people but not for the reasons you create on your mind. 

To make matters worse, UFT leadership’s own Unity caucus members are joining our group UFT Solidarity.  

Name them. 

Others are silent supporters who want to keep their job’s at the UFT central and district offices. Unity members do not have to leave Unity to support Solidarity. We will not be cleaning house of the many good reps that are out there.

 Wow, these people must feel so relieved. They must be sleeping well now. 

Tonight was the UFT Executive Board meeting. It takes place two Mondays a month, is comprised of about 100 members and has a lavish buffet that sets the UFT back about $12,000 a meeting.

$12,000 a meeting for a buffet for 100 people? That is $120 per head. Do you have proof of this? Or is this a number that is just pulled out of some orifice? 

We here at SBSB fact checked this and at most the spread is about $3k. Yes, even that is too much money. We here at SBSB think a shitload of pizzas will do or some six foot wedges along with cole slaw and stuff or even ordering out for wings, but please, get facts straight. 

Suddenly your heart is pounding

We are dealing with wannabe bullies here.

Whatcha talking about Willis? Actually some people are not wannabe bullies but true bullies. **cough cough** **wink wink** **nudge nudge** Know what I mean, know what I mean? 

You're wishing secretly you were a star

Once I spoke and Exec Board member XXXXX informed me after that he found Mulgrew standing alone in the next room where the buffet was listening during my speech.

 Maybe he was adjusting himself. Or just wanted to laugh his ass off in private.

Upon my return VP of Non-DOE members Anne Goldman was on the mic.  She is also the wife of former UFT Manhattan Representative Jerry Goldman and mother of UFT political guru Jason Goldman (next to Paul Egan of course).

So what does it matter about her family? Why must her family be involved?  What purpose does this serve? 

But don't be fooled by the radio/The TV or the magazines

I was driving home from school one day and stopped at a red light. My phone always sits on my dashboard, within arms reach, and I often use voice activation to call or text.

Impressive. I keep my phone between my legs when I drive. Who cares where you keep your phone or that you use voice activation. Why? Because it is all "look at me! I use technology!"

A message reminder I had set popped up stating “Call Nurses.” Before the light changed I had quickly navigated to the UFT Nurses Chapter page.

Hmm, it's starting to get interesting. Hold on everyone. Amazing how one can do this and drive at the same time. 

 They'll show you photographs of how your life should be/But they're just someone else's fantasies

The nurses page had links to every private hospital that employees UFT nurses. Each of those pages had the names and phone numbers of the representatives and what times they were available to be reached. By the next red light I started calling and quickly found out that the information was outdated both in phone numbers and in times of availability. “XXXX XXX-XXXX? No she works during the morning.” “XXXX? Oh you mean XXXX? He’s not here now.” “____? She retired.”

Let's disect this. What gives Portelos the right to call people, nurses, at work, to discuss union business? Were these nurses working at the time? Were they attending to sick patients? 

Now, The Crack Team has heard that these were delegates and surely they must be used to getting phone calls during their shifts, but phone calls that are pertinent to the union, i.e. a member needs help, etc... Not from someone who stands behind a podium and plays pretend as a union president while having his photo taken. Yeah, the phone calls might have been permissible, but they were ethically wrong. Again, this is the same old "me first" story that we see time and time again. 

What's worse is that a nurses full name was published. Again, what gives Portelos the right to do that?

Apparently, as we expected, Anne Goldman found out about our calls, and maybe even some flyers others put up at the hospitals and online.

This is not verbatim, but she says something such as “…AND I AM APPALLED…THAT SOMEONE IN THIS ROOM WOULD DARE CALL OUR NURSES, DURING WORK HOURS TO PUSH THEIR POLITICAL AGENDA, WHILE THEY ARE TAKING CARE OF SICK PATIENTS, AND PUTTING THOSE PATIENT’S LIVES AT RISK!”

Now I truly believe most people in that room had no idea what she was talking about. I did though and I began to smirk as she glanced over at me and says “…AND I AM TALKING ABOUT MR. PORTELOS …AND I ASK THAT IS LEADERSHIP ORDER A CEASE AND DESIST, INVESTIGATE AND REPRIMAND THIS MEMBER.”

She's right. Maybe her tone was wrong, but she is right. But again, Portelos is all about himself. 

So if you think your life is complete confusion/'Cause you never win the game/Just remember that it's a grand illusion

I raise my hand to speak and respond, but UFT Secretary Emil Pietromonaco nodded no. Then another gentleman from the Executive Board, representing the nurses, gets on another microphone and adds something about “…the phone calls to the nurses are monitored and recorded. They violated our contract and could now face disciplinary charges. A cease and desist should be ordered and a full investigation by the board!”

As we have seen with the continued unsolicited emailing of teachers principals we see it again here. Not caring whether or not he puts someone's job and career in jeopardy Portelos does what he wants, when he wants, for himself.  The same script, only different victims. 

So a bunch of people are pissed at Portelos, and rightly so. But instead of possibly for the first time ever seeing the error in his ways, Portelos of course turns this to all about himself. 

This is what it really comes down to…what their fear and desperation is leading them to do. 

NO, NOT FEAR AND DESPERATION!! Just fed up with the pattern we have seen all over. Harassing women over Facebook who decide to speak up for James Eterno. Taunting emails to female members of MORE. Taunting texts to other members of MORE. The bullying on Facebook and on this blog. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be Portelos. 

So if you think your life is complete confusion/Because your neighbor's got it made/Just remember that it's a grand illusion

But here comes the martyrdom....

Portelos wonders what the UFT can do. From the UFT Constitution he mentions Article 3 Section 6 that a member can be expelled, and Article 4, Section 5, that a member in good standing can't run in UFT election and then claims.....

Desperate move, but it appears that a rigged panel will set up a rigged special review board to expel me and make me ineligible to run.

But where is he getting this? According to our sources at the exec board meeting nothing of the sort was broached nor even thought of.  It won't happen, and sources tell us they won't support it. There are better ways. As one source shared; "But that makes him stupid, not guilty of a breach"

But shouldn't Portelos be more concerned about Victor Jordan who has not been a member of the UFT since Clinton was president. 

One method is shunning as the Amish do. The other method of discipline, if there is any, is something that has been suggested by The Crack Team. 

The Crack Team calls for Portelos' super magic UFT Junior decoder ring to be confiscated as well as his UFT Junior  coloring book along with the UFT Junior realistic grievance book used by grown ups.  Oh yeah, and the whistle too.

So let's do the math. One hundred members of Solidarity, plus let's say...10 nurses, not bad. Though not even enough to get on the ballot.