Nepotism and Cronyism: Mulgrew Undermined UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election

I chronicled Mulgrew's move to make every aspect of the UFT based on loyalty in Part 1: https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2026/07/how-mulgrew-undermined-uft-pension-dept.html 

Part 2 focuses on the TRS elections as a function of the pension department and how Mulgrew installed his operatives who put political loyalty over competence in a crucial area of the UFT where every member ends up using on the way to retirement. I include the story of one of the UFT's top pension consultants who was in much demand until he was sent back to teaching at the end of August 2025, seemingly a threat due to his attempts to run for TRS rep in the 2026 election. He ran anyway.

Wednesday, July 8, 2026 

The recent Teachers Retirement System election put a focus on former Unity loyalists who have been cast out of the cult.

 

Frank Panebianco and David Kazansky ran against Unity's Tom Brown. Both had been fired from the UFT.

TRS elections have been neglected by the forces aligned against Unity for way too long, thus allowing Unity to control all 3 pension reps who are elected to 3 year staggered terms. For years I've been urging people to not let Unity escape any election without being challenged and to use elections as an outreach and organizing tool as prep for the big enchilada - the general union election. 

 

In March 2024 Mulgrew dumped David Kazansky, who had served for 9 years as TRS rep because David was known to be independent and willing to ask questions at TRS meetings and not subject to automatic loyalty to Mulgrew. 

 

David was given a job as an AFT pension rep, with Randi Weingarten having the AFT pick up his salary. That led to the first TRS election in decades with Brooklyn Tech math teacher Ben Morgenroth running against the unknown Christina McGrath, David's replacement, an election that shocked Unity and the DOE which had to run the election. Frank Panebianco, the UFT's leading pension consultant, was also shocked as he had been waiting for almost a decade to run for TRS and was denied once again.

 

Since the DOE never had to run a real election, there were many screwups that led to both the union and the opposition raising legal objections. 

 

In June 2025, Kazansky was fired from the AFT job and had his UFT leave rescinded and went back to teaching in an elementary school in the Bronx that September. He announced sometime in February 2026 a run for TRS rep.

 

Frank Panebianco was also shocked when he was notified by UFT HR department in late August 2025, just a day before school began, that his leave was not being renewed and had to hustle to get back to his old school from 13 years before. 

 

Everyone I spoke to, including people in the opposition, have good things to say about Frank as one of, if not the, top pension person at the UFT, someone that even the top officials at the UFT have used for their final pension consultations. Frank also has a background in finance, qualifing him to be an effective TRS rep.

 

A time-line of recent TRS elections and changes in the pension department at 52 Broadway

• 2013: Frank Panebianco is promoted from an after school Bronx pension rep to full-time at 52.
•  
• 2014: Tom Brown becomes TRS rep when Mona Romain retires. Frank is alternate.
•   
• 2015: Long-time pension expert Mel Aaronson, who fundamentally had free reign to train and promote pension reps, retires from TRS and tells Frank that he deserves the job but there is worry at the top the opposition would complain and they are going with David Kazansky instead. Why the oppo would complain about Frank given the oppo never had comments on TRS elections, is a mystery. Frank is alternate.

• 2016: Sandy March retires and tells Frank he would be best for the job but they can't have 3 white men. Debra Penny, UFT Staten Island Borough Rep replaces her. 

With strong pension figures like Aaronson and March out of the way, the 2016 TRS election is Mulgrew's move to take control and politicize the pension/TRS process.  Frank is alternate. Debra Penny immediately takes over as the boss of the pension department as Mulgrew's agent.

• 2017: Tom Brown runs for second term. Frank is alternate. Frank is asked to recruit a minority woman for a full-time pension position. Only Victoria Lee from Queens pension is available. She moves to full-time at 52. Some in Queens question the decision. 

• 2018: David runs again, Frank is alternate.
• 2019: Penny runs again, Frank is alternate
• 2020: Tom Brown runs again, Frank is alternate

• 2021: David runs again. Mulgrew supposedly tries to replace him but RandyWeingarten and Mel Aaronson intervene. Frank is alternate.

• 2022: Penny runs for second term but it is known she will resign before her term is up. Victoria Lee is her chosen successor and is the alternate, the only time Frank has not been the alternate. 

As expected, Penny resigns mid-term and Victoria Lee is chosen to replace her. Some in the pension department are not happy with the choice.

• 2023: Tom Brown starts another 3-year term and Frank is once again the alternate.

To this point there has not been an opponent, so no TRS elections. 

• 2024: Mulgrew removes Kazansky as TRS rep who is offered a special pension job paid for by Randi at the AFT but leaving him working out of 52. David did not want to leave the TRS job and word leaks he was afoul of Mulgrew and possibly Lee and Brown because he asked too many questions at TRS meetings of pension consultants, questions that should have been asked.   
•  

See: TRS Passport Funds Underperform Over Last 10 Years: TDA investment options cost members hundreds of thousands in lost returns

Pensions with Ben Morgenrath

Jun 10, 2026

Frank is passed over again

There is shock that newcomer Christina McGrath, an ally of Victoria Lee, is brought in to run in 2024. Ben Morgenroth declares his candidacy, forcing the first TRS election in decades. The election, run by the DOE through school principals is a total mess. Unity leadership is forced to engage in a campaign for the first time. Ben gets about a third of the vote in very low turnout. 

 

Frank is once again the alternate, and is now pissed off after being passed over for so many years. The "3 white men" argument no longer works since McGrath would be the second woman. UFT people were asking Frank, "How could Mulgrew pass over you for Christina?" 

 

March, 2024: Frank asks to Meet with Mulgrew after McGrath is endorsed by Unity 

 

Frank tells Mulgrew he wants out - "send me back to the Bronx." 

 

Mulgrew wants him to stay and apologized for playing politics. Frank asks Mulgrew to agree to a raise, allowing him to work two days remote and to run for TRS in 2026 when Tom Brown retires. They shake on it: 

 

Mulgrew: "You have my word and my word means everything. He praises Frank - "You never asked for anything. I didn't know you wanted the job. I want to make it up to you."

Weeks later Mulgrew asks Frank:
“How is that raise I gave you?" 
Frank: I never got it or the remote days either.

Going into summer '24 - still no raise.
 

Oct, 2024  

2 days remote finally comes through for Frank but no raise. 

Mulgrew tells Frank is was a tough battle to get him the remote and it took 7 months of battling. 

Frank asks "Why? Aren't you the president?" 

Mulgrew shrugs.

Victoria Lee who is also UFT Treasurer, and most likely had to approve the raise, tells Frank: "There's no way you will ever make more money than me."

Frank never gets the raise.

 

Jan 2025 - Frank and Victoria Lee air things out. She says "You need to be by my side - people see you with me - that's the way to get promoted."

She brings in Jeff Novzen to 52 Broadway full-time, a friend of her husband, who is a school principal, as a pension rep trainee despite Frank's objections that Novzen didn't have the knowledge or experience. 

 

Frank is shocked and tells Lee: “All the senior consultants that have years of experience and Jeff Novzen has not even done a final consultation. You picked a trainee over all the experienced special reps?"

 

Over the past few years Frank has been impressed with the work of some borough pension reps and recommends a few for promotion to central but is blocked by Penny and Lee. Leah Linn out of the Queens office is one of those reps. A prolific social media presence, she signs up to run with ABC in the 2025 election and is fired by Mulgrew in June 2025.

 

Word spreads in the pension dept that Novzen is being groomed to run for TRS in 2026 when Tom Brown is supposedly retiring.  

 

May 2025 - Victoria Lee runs for re-election and Ben Morgenroth runs against her. Lee challenges his petitions and Ben is disqualified due to a minor technicality.   

 

June 2025 -UFT pension retreat - Lee celebrates her victory at the June 2025 UFT pension rep meeting bragging how she got Ben Morgenroth disqualified. "I won, I won. It doesn't matter how you win as long as you win."

 

She knew she wasn't well-liked inside the caucus and among the pension consultants and was nervous about her getting the kind of support Tom Brown ends up getting a year later, so disqualifying Ben on a technicality  avoids an election. Her next election, due in 2028 at the same time as the next general UFT election may not be so easy.

 

At the same meeting she publicly castigates and humiliates Tom Brown telling him he should retire. She wanted him gone so she could put her husband's friend Jeff Novzin to replace him at TRS a year later. 

June/July 2025 - Tom Brown to Frank: "My dream is to retire and you to replace me." Apologizes for not standing up and allowing "them" to politicize the pension and TRS department and says he will retiree. Frank is the most qualified to be on TRS and should run because no one thinks Jeff Novzen is competent to be a TRS rep and Frank would win easily. Says Frank is the best choice and should run for TRS as he is knowledgeable, popular and has a lot of contacts. Frank decides he will run and starts touching base with people. 

 
July/August 2025 - Frank begins a behind the scenes campaign for the 2026 TRS election by contacting his network. 

August 2025: A day before school began, Frank received a notice from UFT HR that his leave was being revoked and if he wasn't back in a school the next day he would not have a job. This was a major shock and he called Asst. Secty Mike Sill to find out what was going on. Sill told him he had no idea and knew nothing about it. When Frank reached Mulgrew he was told that Mulgrew would look into it. 

 

Sept. 2025: A few days later, Frank was back in his old school, where he hadn't been for 13 years, teaching science in kindergarten.  HR tells Frank, "We were just told to do this by your supervisor, Vicky."  

 

Nov. 2025: Mulgrew spends about 2 months looking into what is going on in the pension department and after doing his own inquiry he has a meeting with Frank and tells Frank: “I asked people all over and found out that they said, When it comes to pension we only go to Frank, we don’t even waste our time with anyone else because Frank is the most knowledgeable and he gets back to us.

Mulgrew also says he found out Frank is doing all the work (an indication that the HR rationale for terminating his leave was bogus), everyone loves him and he has a big tier 6 push and that he needs him back because he needs his best pension person there for that.

Frank agrees to return but tells Mulgrew only if he holds to his word about the trustee position and the raise. 

 

Jan. 2026

Mulgrew offers Frank his job back, agreeing to a raise and two days remote but  Mulgrew says he cannot agree on the TRS election, despite his previous handshake.  (Victoria Lee pal Jeff Novzen is being groomed for the TRS rep). Frank walks despite suffering a 50K pay cut.

 

More details of that meeting:

 

Frank reiterates his requests that Mulgrew shook his hand on: two days of remote, a raise and running for TRS. 

 

Mulgrew says “he can’t" and Frank says, "you gave me your word" and Mulgrew repeats, "Well I can't."

Frank responds, "I am not coming back to do all the work and be the one who runs all the projects and be the most qualified but instead in the spring I’m supposed to sit there at the DA again and watch you endorse someone else for trustee that has no experience. I’m sorry I’m not doing that again." 

Mulgrew says 
"I can’t believe you made me do all that work finding out everything for nothing."

Frank:  "You did all that work and found out the truth that I have been the one who keeps getting screwed because of politics."

Tom brown calks Frank begging him to come back, promising him if he came back he would talk to Mulgrew and tell him to endorse Frank. 

 

Frank tells him,  "Absolutely not Tom. There is no way I’m coming back because you have never stood up for me before and I don’t trust that you would now. Besides you are afraid of Victoria and she will boss you around pushing her guy Jeff and you will let that happen so I will not come back."  

 

Feb 2026: David Kazansky announces he is running for TRS. Mulgew, nervous he'd beat a newcomer like Victoria Lee pal Jeff Novzen, gets Tom Brown to run again. 

 

Tom Brown: Mulgrew is telling him he has to run.

 

Frank, feeling he has been slighted over a decade in his quest to run for TRS also announces he is running, with a number of people telling him they are secretly voting for him. David Kazansky reaches out to discuss the problems of two people running. Nothing gets settled even if it clear that neither of them could win. 

 

A massive Unity campaign for Brown is organized like a military operation with lots of pressure on the Unity faithful to get out the vote. They get 30k petition signatures when they only need 1k. Frank thinks he can carve out a piece of the Unity votes for Tom plus his own contacts.

 

May/June 2026: TRS Campaign Results:
A smashing victory for Tom Brown with 35k votes. 66%. The Unity campaign has won big, a model for future campaigns.

David gets over 15K with the support of the ABC network plus his own. If the legacy caucuses like RA, MORE and NAC hadn't sat this out (though a few individuals backed them) the vote would have been higher. 

 

Frank gets almost 4k votes, pretty good since he had his own personal network with no institutional support. 

 

Combined, they hit about 19k, about 34%, which would probably be a bit higher with the legacy groups involved, a rising proportion of anti-Unity people in any UFT election at this point. Let's put it at the high 30s. Their shortsightedness in not seeing TRS elections as a building block for the oppo is endemic to the legacy groups, some of whom are more focused about fighting for BDS on Israeli bonds than actually getting Unity out of power.

 

I will effort to get spreadsheets with election outcomes school by school. 

 

Will there be repercussions for Unity people in areas where David or Frank had more votes than Tom Brown? 

 

2027 TRS Election

Christina McGrath should be running for re-election but she began to rebel over Lee's bossing her around and they end up in screaming matches and are no longer speaking. Debra Penny is also upset with Victoria Lee and tells her that she is one of 3 trustees that are equal and she is not Christina’s boss. Victoria snapped back, “Yes I am!” 

 

Inside betting is that McGrath won't be the Unity candidate in 2027 if Lee gets her way. There is also the specter that Tom Brown, at age 75, decides to retire this year, thus adding a second election. 

 

Either way, expect there to be an opposition candidate, in both 2027 and 2028 when Lee runs again, hopefully one united campaign. David, Frank and Ben, all very capable, in the mix.

 

And that the legacy caucuses will get the message that TRS elections are a building block to defeat Unity and support any campaign against Unity.

 

Afterburn - 

 

After speaking with my resources and learning about what had gone on over the years I was able to have someone connect me with Frank to hear what he thought about the results of the election and this is what he wrote:

I wish Tom the best of luck, he was like a big brother to me and I hope he stays the 3 years for the term, because that is what people expect from him when they voted. It’s too bad he was ‘forced’ to run. There are people who actually cared about the position and wanted to be able to use their knowledge and experience to help members and not make this political.

 

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The mess at UFT HQ is not all that new.

  

Some background on politicizing at the UFT: 

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Mulgrew Removes Brooklyn Borough Rep Debbie Poulos - Was She too aggressive on certain abusive principals?

UFT Update: Internal Wars - Engler and Schoor

Engler is still employed and makes $215,447 a year... NY Post - UFT director sends scathing emails with typo to secretary

Engler is the power behind the throne at UFT & Mulgrew defers to her .... anonymous

The NY Post has a story about emails from a year ago from Ellie Engler complaining about Howie Schoor's comments to Bronx staffers.

“I had a disturbing meeting with the Bronx folks about what you said to them,” Engler wrote last August in an e-mail to Schoor that was copied to UFT boss Michael Mulgrew and other top personnel. “They reported that you said, everyone hates Ellie and I am getting in your way to do the work you want to do.”