Scrooge of the Year (see note below) candidates are nominated for their actions that lead to social and economic injustices, including stomping on our rights to organize or other wrongs that cause harm to our community. In honor of our capitalist democracy, the more tickets you buy, the more votes you get!  $1 = 1 Vote.  Vote early and vote often by mailing in the Scrooge Vote Ticket along with your payment to 3049 S 36th St #201, Tacoma WA 98409, or attending the Scrooge Party on December 9th where the votes will be tallied and winner announced.

Previous winners of the award have met an untimely demise, such as former Tacoma Macy's Store Manager Carol Lorton, former Tacoma City Councilmember Kevin Phelps, former Darigold CEO John Mueller, former US Senator Slade Gorton, former UW President Richard McCormick, and former Congressperson Newt Gingrich.  Other Scrooge winners have since grown a heart three times larger and have become socially responsible community leaders.

The party will be combined with the PCCLC's holiday party.  Potluck dessert.  Catered appetizers by the Pierce County Labor Council.  No host bar. 

This year's infamous finalists are . . .

• Sick Rick Talbert Scrooge: Tacoma Council & Health Bd Chair
• Cruella DeVil Linda Nguyen Scrooge: Director Employment & Training Consortium
• Illness Profitizer Cheri Dolezal Scrooge: OptumHealth's Executive

Reasons for Sick Rick Talbert's Nomination
Tacoma Council Member & Pierce County Health Board Chair Multiple Personalities:  It is a shame that Rick Talbert subsidizes luxury condos with our tax-dollars while denying affordable healthcare to workers who build for and service wealthy investors.  He should know better than to publicly campaign on empty high-rises and against living wage job standards.  Sounds just like the Bush housing bubble.  Not only does Mr. Talbert serve luxury developers by taking our tax-dollars, he wants to provide them the poverty-wage workers too. Mr. Talbert has also championed and aided the privatized Northwest Detention Center startup and doubling of size, which further depresses the underground economy, threatens public health and safety, and violates State environmental covenants. As Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma says, “Contracting out all of these functions to private companies has caused all sorts of disasters.”  We diagnose Mr. Talbert with Multiple Personality Disorder for chairing a Health Department that speaks against "health inequity" caused by poverty but then pushes his grinchy policies as chair of Tacoma City Council Economic Development Committee.  Rick is sick but we won't let his illness be contagious.  We hope to cure Rick's heart by reconciling what he says with what he delivers.

Reasons for Linda Nguyen's Nomination
Cruella DeVil Director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Employment and Training Consortium: Used our tax-dollars to run an aggressive union-busting campaign against Consortium staff that is as worker-hating and heinous as any private sector employer. Ms. Nguyen has refused to comply with multiple State orders to cease anti-union discrimination and retaliation, rehire union activists, and compensate for her illegal activities. The workers organized 3 years ago and this Scrooge candidate still won't bargain a fair first union contract. During negotiations, Ms. Nguyen:

• rejects a union proposed change in health and welfare plans that would save over $200 per month per employee to the detriment of the Consortium and taxpayer and refuses to share with employees any of the cost savings
• demands to violate the employer's current seniority principle and to give herself dictator reign to decide which workers to lay off.
• fails to propose even a single complete proposal for workers to vote in over 2 years ongoing

Reasons for Cheri Dolezal's Nomination
Illness Profitizer Executive Director for OptumHealth Pierce County: Ms. Dolezal's company turns a profit on Pierce County residents' mental illnesses and tax-dollars. OptumHealth's corporate parent is United Behavioral Health which holds billions of dollars in reserves and assets. Its lobbying machine influenced the State to switch to its for-profit model in 2009. Now, Optum is running a textbook example of profit-making by:

• Shuttering a union staffed healthcare facility
• Skimming off budget cuts – Optum has cut funding for mental health services twice as much as state cuts for all other Regional Support Networks that provide mental health services, according to the Pierce County negotiator for mental health funding Lyle Quasim
• Prioritizing administration over frontline care – Optum now has more people in bureaucratic positions managing spending and care than when the County managed the mental health system
• Shifting care to emergency rooms – fewer beds are now available under Optum than under the previous provider which drives patients to the ER and drives up costs for our national healthcare system. We all pay for Optum's profits with higher insurance premiums and Medicare taxes.

Note on award name:
Formerly known as Grinch of the Year until Dr. Seuss Enterprises Inc. threatened a trademark lawsuit in the spirit of holiday giving.