Tri-Met
streetcar operator Evette Farra has been elected secretary-treasurer
of Portland-based Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757. She out-polled
five other candidates in a race to fill the unexpired term of Tom
Wallace.
Wallace resigned in February after admitting to stealing money from
a special fund set up to help pay child care and elder care expenses
for Tri-Met employees. He is now facing a federal criminal indictment.
After Wallace’s confession, he resigned and the Local was placed
in trusteeship by the international union. Ken Kinoshita, a member
of the Local 757 Executive Board, was named interim financial treasurer,
serving until the special election. He finished second in the balloting,
214 votes behind Farra.
Farra, 37, grew up in the Portland area, graduated from Vancouver’s
Mountain View High School, and met her husband at Multnomah Bible
College. In 1993, she became the first in her family to work at Tri-Met,
where her mother, step-father, and husband also now work. Farra’s
past experience as a business owner in real estate will help in her
new position, she said.
“It’s a little more involved than balancing a checkbook,”
said Farra, who ran for the post against Wallace in 2006, “but
it doesn’t take a financial degree.”
To bone up on union financial management, Farra will fly to the union’s
Washington, D.C., headquarters in late October for a week-long training.
Local 757 has 4,127 members in Oregon and Southwest Washington, and
Tri-Met is its largest employer. Financial secretary-treasurer is
one of the local’s top elected positions, along with president
and vice president. Farra will serve out the remainder of Wallace’s
three-year term, which expires June 30, 2009.
