Patrick Forrey, who has served as president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association since September 2006, has lost his bid for re-election, and the group will hold a runoff to decide between two candidates, NATCA said on Friday. Former Executive Vice President Ruth Marlin and current Executive Vice President Paul Rinaldi will compete in the runoff. It will take at least a month for the association to complete its runoff procedure and name a new president, and perhaps longer. Forrey will remain in office until Aug. 31, the end of his term, but if no successor has been named by then, he will stay in office until the next president is named, NATCA spokeswoman Alexandra Caldwell told AVweb. “If there is no challenge to the election results, the ballots for the runoff election will go out on the 16th day [after July 31],” she said. “If there is a challenge, the ballots will go out 16 days after the resolution to that challenge.” Then, a 30-day period will pass after the ballots go out, and the ballots will be counted on the 31st day. Presuming a winner is named, another 30 days will pass until he or she takes office.
Marlin was executive vice president during former President John Carr’s tenure. Rinaldi, of Manassas, Va., was an air traffic controller in Washington, D.C., for 15 years before taking on the job of executive vice president in 2006.
