As your newly elected association vice president, I am honored to continue to serve our membership. I am further humbled by the vote of confidence of the board of directors to the seat of vice president. The VP essentially works closely with the president in political and business matters, presides over meetings in the absence of the president, and is responsible for overseeing the DSA Staff. I will continue to chair the negotiation committee as well as meet and confer.

I, along with my peers, have been working diligently, preparing for our next contract negotiation with the county. We have met with most of our supervisors at least once in the last couple of months, discussing local and state politics, budgetary items and other important issues. We will continue to meet with them this summer and fall and hopefully lay the groundwork for a fair and reasonable contract. We’ve already ordered up salary surveys and will look into another financial audit of the county. A couple of us attended even more seminars and symposiums on negotiations to get a firm grasp of the climate, not only in our region, but around the state and across the country as well.

I believe the conversations with our county leaders have gone quite well. They tell us they understand and appreciate the job we do as peace officers and truly appreciate how responsible and mature our group has been during the worst economic times in decades. We conceded to a new pension tier, and unlike some groups, we did not go public threatening to unseat our supervisors.

That being said, we will show through documented comparisons based on accepted market surveys traditionally used by the county, that we are in the bottom 25 percent of the salary survey, even after many agencies have taken no pay increases or have even experienced cuts to salary and some benefits. Rising health care costs, loss of quality first pay, and reduced overtime are just a few things that have contributed to a reduction in our bottom line. To take more away from our group, I fear, would shoot us right to the bottom. That would surely not make it easy to recruit the best candidates.

Unlike other county labor groups, we do not collect social security, and the county does not have to pay into social security for us. We therefore cost the county approximately 2 percent less in overall retirement costs than for non safety groups, which represents the overwhelming majority of county employees.

I recently went on KOGO AM 600 radio and defended our pensions in the continuing “campaign” that rails against public pensions. I educated the listening audience as well as the receptive host to the facts surrounding our contract, our retirement, and our medical costs. What I conveyed to the audience was that the DSA acted responsibly for the last two years and has done our part in sharing the “pain.” I conveyed that we do not get a free ride in any way, shape or form, with our members paying hundreds a month in medical, and a portion toward their own retirement. In the end, the host ended up understanding that there definitely are two sides to this and agreed that peace officers and firemen should be looked at differently when it comes to public employee benefits.

We have to earn the public’s trust and support, and right now that is an uphill battle, as we are often lumped in with all unions. In fact, in some radio and TV markets, public safety is an actual target of the anti-public union crowd. This is why we are looking at a strong public relations campaign to kick off this year. It will be both positive and educational.

Enjoy the rest of your summer! 