Where are they now? Carmen Planells.

Do you remember Carmen Planells?

Tyrone Freeman's mother in law, she was yet another bit player in the massive corruption scandal at Local 6434 last year.

Carmen ran a childcare center from her home, and was paid around $100,000 a year by the Homecare Workers Training Center. Her own moment in the spotlight was very brief...

"In a telephone interview, Carmen Planells said she still had the day-care contract. "Is there something wrong with that?" she said, before declining to answer more questions."

And then a few more sordid details came out about the daycare center. One former 6434 staffer wrote...

"In regards to the child care. Having left my child there I can tell you for a FACT that she DID NOT watch the children of Home Care workers or trainees from the training center. The only children that were in that day care center were those of the staff.

In addition, to call that baby sweatshop that woman ran a day care is hyperbole. The bathroom was loaded with her belongings and not a training potty in sight. The kitchen was packed with boxes of cereal and other things, but not once did she ever cook for the children. In fact, I was told that I would have to supply food for my child. I also know that she was cited for leaving the babies in bouncers for too long and there were probably other violations.

The playroom (if you can call it that) for the children was probably 10 x 12 and most of the time when I went to pick my child up she was watching t.v. I think it is pretty incredible she was getting paid such a huge sum of money when obviously she was providing sub-standard care to these children. In addition, there was only one other aide at the most, who I was sure only got paid minimum wage."

Well, after Freeman was removed and things were hushed up at the local, it seems Carmen wound up having to sell the home where she ran the daycare center. Nothing at all to celebrate, but an interesting postscript to the 6434 scandal.



And here's another one - did you know that when the 6434 story broke, Pilar and Tyrone were expecting their second child? Pilar was very pregnant and ready to pop any day. We all know what happened then - Tyrone was forced to resign, and 6434 was put under trusteeship by yet another hand-picked Stern appointee.

But what most people don't know is that Pilar and Tyrone had a beautiful baby boy... named Exodus!

exodus:

n 1: a journey by a large group to escape from a hostile environment (syn: hegira, hejira)

2: the second book of the Old Testament: tells of the departure of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt led by Moses; God gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of Mosaic law on Mount Sinai during the Exodus (syn: Exodus)

Belated congratulations to Pilar and Tyrone!