Membership,
There are many things to touch on.
Thanks to all who attended the meetings on short notice in June and those who took the time to vote. I’ve been on the GFFA board now for 11 years, and we have never had that many people turn out for the meetings. We wish the news were better. We hope that the overwhelming approval of the new MOU validates what we are doing as an organization. We know that giving back is distasteful, but we felt the news would probably continue to be bad, and we wanted to get in and out quick. The debacle in Bell is one example of continued bad news that puts all public employees in a bad light, and will continue to provide pressure on our wages, benefits, and working conditions. This will carry into the election for Governor. Look out if Meg Whitman gets elected.
I am not a legal expert, but I have long told all of you that your current pension benefits are guaranteed by law, but all they have to do is change the law, and then that could change. I think we are about to see that put to the test. Our city is leading a challenge to the pension payout for our former Police Chief. If we have a pension based on your single highest year, how can they legally challenge his pension? It may not affect Randy Adams, but I think there is a good chance that the law gets changed, and current employees will see your pension based on an average of your last three years. I hope I am wrong.
The News-Press has made a public request for our overtime numbers and what reimbursements we have had for that OT. We are not sure if they are motivated to research this because of issues in Bell, because of councilwoman’s Friedman’s remarks during our contract ratification vote, or for some other reason. Be proud of the living you make and the hours you work to earn it, but please be humble about it. Expect a backlash from other employee groups that don’t earn what you earn, but are also going to be giving concessions.
Speaking of our contract ratification vote, please view it if you haven’t yet:
It starts with the City Manager’s comments at about the 25 minute mark.
The PD took their 6 percent raise and I don’t know if they are continuing negotiations. I have spoken with them, and it appears they offered a renegotiated contract that was a significant savings to the city, although it was a complicated proposal. One has to wonder why the city didn’t take it. It will be interesting to see what happens when their contract expires next year. I think it is going to be largely dependent on where they are in their salary survey, as well as the economic situation in the city.
The other employees groups are still negotiating and rumor has it that it has been an ugly scene. One councilmember told me they probably looking at imposition of a contract on the other groups if they don’t reach agreement. That’s not a good place to be, and we are glad we are not in that position.
Recently a few of our members have been doing some off duty training with some AO’s etc. I‘m not going to tell people what to do in this area, but please understand if you get injured off duty, you will most likely not be covered by workers compensation. We have talked to the city about this. You are going to be on your own.
Lastly, Loren or Stella from Nationwide retirement systems are going to be calling fire stations setting up meetings. Please give them 30 minutes of your time. I have been working with them for 2 years to bring a more competitive fee structure and better investment objectives to us and they are delivering on that, if the director of finance allows them to. For a long time, the IAFF has objected to its members (that’s all of us) having our money invested with an organization, ICMA, the International City Managers Association, that has actively worked against the best interests of firefighters. Essentially we give them our money and they use it against us. ICMA opposed NFPA 1710, and they support firefighters mowing lawns, and doing crossing guard duties at schools. Recently, the city attempted to make ICMA the only vendor serving us for deferred compensation and we have delayed that, and I am working with the other employee organizations to try and make sure that does not happen. Essentially my position is that competition is good for us. Giving any company exclusive rights to market us their investment products, especially without any competitive bidding process is a disservice to us. It’s your money. In fact I would object to that even if they were going to give Nationwide all the business. Right now 90% of the city employee’s money is with ICMA. Up until now, Nationwide’s fees were significantly higher than ICMA’s, so I couldn’t in good conscience ask you guys to switch your money. Provided the city agrees to the new fee structure and new investment products, I can now ask you to do just that; switch your money from ICMA to Nationwide. As an example, I feel that we should have US government FDIC insured products in our accounts. As we get closer to retirement we should have those types of products. If there is no competition there will be limited incentive for any vendor to change anything. Nationwide’s fees will be competitive, and they are not engaged in political activities against us. So please give these women your time. I know you are busy, but if you’ve got time for AFLAC or LAFDCU, you’ve got time to listen to these folks. We have a deferred compensation/ RHSP committee meeting in the second week of August; I’ll give you an update after.
Thanks
Stav
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