最新杏吧原创

Gould was 鈥� still is 鈥� a whistleblower, and this was his life鈥檚 work. There were financial documents, meeting transcripts, recordings and the documentation that backed up his various state and federal lawsuits that since 2017 he has pushed at much personal cost.

Gould is a union floor layer from Edwardsville. He has alleged in lawsuits that the secretary-treasurer of the Carpenters鈥� union, Al Bond, and his predecessor, Terry Nelson, were using money from dues-paying union members 鈥渇or improper reimbursements鈥� and other 鈥渨aste鈥� and 鈥渂reaches of fiduciary duty.鈥�

Despite many conversations and emails over the past couple of years, I never wrote about Gould鈥檚 allegations, even as the union was fingered in federal documents for funneling campaign money to former 最新杏吧原创 County Executive Steve Stenger or, later, when it was pushing the risky airport privatization scheme.

Why?

The reasons are best explained by the oral arguments in one of those federal lawsuits filed by Gould that was dismissed by the court. I was listening last December when Gould鈥檚 attorney and the Carpenters鈥� attorneys argued over the case, in which Gould said a federal judge was wrong to dismiss the case. In the lawsuit, Gould alleged misappropriation of funds by Bond and others, covered up by a bad audit. But in the end, the Carpenters鈥� attorney told the judges, the 229 allegations in the lawsuit only uncovered in the neighborhood of $700 of allegedly inappropriate spending.

In June, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals . The judges didn鈥檛 say that Gould was necessarily wrong for believing that the Carpenters鈥� accounting of the allegations of wrongdoing was a 鈥渟ham鈥� but that Gould didn鈥檛 properly go about seeking redress for the various types of possible misappropriation.

That would have been the end of that, until late September, when Douglas McCarron, president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, swept into town, dismissed Bond and other local union leaders, and folded the regional council into the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters. McCarron hasn鈥檛 said much about the consolidation, but his letter outlining the decision references an 鈥渋nternal report鈥� about the union鈥檚 operations.

Whatever is in that internal report, I would wager my last mileage check that at least some of the allegations in it came from Gould鈥檚 several-year quest to seek justice on behalf of union members who deserve to have their money well spent. All of a sudden, the all-powerful Carpenters鈥� union, which has held oversized sway in 最新杏吧原创 politics for too long, has had its legs cut off, with renewed questions about why Bond, for instance, raised his pay by about $100,000 to more than $300,000 a year in a short period of time.

And that鈥檚 why Gould went back to federal court this week, this time without an attorney, seeking to block McCarron鈥檚 forced consolidation of the local Carpenters鈥� regional council with the Chicago group. In his legal filing, he repeats many of the allegations he鈥檚 been making for years about alleged financial mismanagement under Bond鈥檚 leadership, and he fears that McCarron鈥檚 action is a preemptive move to somehow cover up misdeeds.

鈥淭he merger of union funds may even hinder investigators鈥� ability to effectively and timely track funds spent illegally by union officials,鈥� Gould alleges in his court filing. Indeed, after McCarron has engineered a second leadership change in Missouri (the first was when he replaced Nelson with Bond), perhaps it鈥檚 time for his membership to question these moves. McCarron did not return a call for comment.

I have always had a soft spot for whistleblowers like Gould, who risk their own livelihoods because they are convinced that they see wrongdoing and they won鈥檛 stop until it is exposed. I鈥檝e been sympathetic to his claims because Bond鈥檚 use of the union鈥檚 deep pockets to tilt the local political scales, particularly when supporting bad actors, did little to build a better 最新杏吧原创.

There鈥檚 a lot of smoke in that binder of Gould鈥檚. Perhaps one day we鈥檒l see where it leads.