3/26/08

Once again, the County Manager and his staff modified their plan for the proposed changes to our retirement, this change even worse than the last. On 3/25/08, the County Board held their Public Budget Hearing at 7 PM in the County Board Room. Unlike in years past when public saftey was given an opportunity to speak first, this year we were pushed to the end of the list, speaking almost two hours after the event began.

Nevertheless, we were not detered. Despite the short notice (caused by the County Managers unexpected numbers game), numerous Officers from all shifts and ranks packed the room to show their interest and support, some Officers even had to use Leave to attend. From the rank of recruit to Chief, Officers lined the walls, standing quietly through all of the presentations while filling the room with thunderous aplause in support of the public safety speakers.

Those who spoke on our behalf (in order) were Mike Rowling, APBA President; Brian Cutlip, ACOPs President; and Albert Kim who spoke as a county resident on behalf of himself and every Officer in the room. Also speaking on behalf of public safety were Sheriff Beth Arthur and several members of the Fire Fighter's Union.

Click here To view the VIDEO of the event. If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can use the drop-down box to jump to specific speakers.

2/26/08

The County Manager is in the process of introducing his FY '09 budget, the most dramatic items of note include changes to our health care (both active employees and retirement) and possibly significant increases in our pension system and our multiplier. ACOP and the APBA are working hard to protect the benefits of the ACPD workforce, however the budget is tight and cuts are going to be made. See the Web Forum for the ongoing discussion and be prepared for upcoming roll call training and action requests from your Union and PBA reps. Only members can vote, so if you haven't signed up, now is the time!

What happened to Collective Bargaining?
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 980: Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007 with strong bipartisan support. Members from both sides of the isle recognized that the sacrifices made by our nation's law enforcement needs to be met with the rights to speak up for our pay and benefits.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate's matching bill, S. 2123: Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007, has been referred to committee where it is stalled, perhaps permanently.

What to do?
It's time to contact your legislators. S. 2123 has 27 co-sponsors including Senators Obama and Clinton. This is an election year, it's time to find out what they can do to help us and make this bill a reality.

Additionally, Email the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (H.E.L.P.) by clicking here.

And, contact each of the members of the H.E.L.P. Committee who are listed below - Click here for their contact information.

Democrats by Rank:

Edward Kennedy (MA)
Christopher Dodd (CT)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD)
Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Patty Murray (WA)
Jack Reed (RI)
Hillary Rodham Clinton(NY)
Barack Obama (IL)
Bernard Sanders (I) (VT)
Sherrod Brown (OH)

Republicans by Rank:

Michael B. Enzi (WY)
Judd Gregg (NH)
Lamar Alexander (TN)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Wayne Allard (CO)
Tom Coburn, M.D. (OK)

 

In 2007 (for FY08 and beyond), ACOP in cooperation with the APBA focused their strength and efforts by fighting for the below listed items. While not everything was achieved, their work has not been deterred and they continue to strive to improve pay, benefits, and work conditions for the members of the Arlington County Police Department. Read on for a rough syllabus of their work.

The following are the issues the Arlington Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Association and the Arlington Coalition of Police would like to have considered for implementation during the FY08 budget process. We recognize that the post retirement health care issue is the most pressing issue at this time and it is our number one priority. Because it is difficult to predict the course of action that will be necessary to resolve that issue, we do want to be prepared to discuss our other priorities. There are a number of issues that were previously priced. Those numbers are indicated on our list. The issues we would like to have priced this year are issues #3 and #4. We appreciate assistance with this matter.
 

1) Preserve Post Retirement Health Care.
 

2) We recommend that the accrual rate for the pre-Social Security Bridge for public safety employees be raised from the current 2% per service year to 2.3% per year. It is important to point out this is a change from our previous position of seeking a straight 2% accrual rate. We have increased our recommendation due to the fact that other jurisdictions continue to increase their benefits. More specifically, recently Fairfax County Fire Department employees’ pre-social security accrual rate was increased from 2.5% to 2.8%. This brought their accrual rate up to the level that Fairfax County Police receive. Additionally, the City of Alexandria firefighters’ accrual rate was changed to 2.5% for their first 20 years and 3.2% for their last 10 years as of last year. Thus, our .3% increase allows us to keep pace. (This was recently priced at $1.5 million)
 

3) We recommend that the provision that allows public safety employees to receive an unreduced annuity after 25 years of service o be reduced to 22 years. While the DROP plan is an excellent enhancement to our system, to fully take advantage of that benefit a public safety officer must work a total of 28 years. The nature of the work makes that extremely difficult in most instances. If a public safety employee were eligible for an unreduced pension after 22 years they could realize a full career of 25 years which would include benefiting from participating in the DROP plan was change to straight 20 year provision.
 

4) Since issue #5 below does carry a substantial cost, we propose incrementally addressing the issue by increasing the first ten year’s accrual rate from 1.5% to 1.7%. The 1.5% accrual rate was the initial source of concern for public safety employees. We continue to maintain that 1.5% is lower than any accrual rate for any public safety employees in the country. This should be more affordable and also helps the Chapter 21 personnel achieve crossover.
 

5) The next priority issue is to increase the accrual rate used for calculating the base benefit for public safety employees from the current tiered system (1.5% first ten years, 1.7% second ten years and 2% for last ten years) to 2% per service year. This has been our position since we first initiated retirement issues many years ago. Our request would not place us at or even near the top in the comparison charts, but would at least bring us more in to the middle of the region. (This was priced at $7.5 million last year)
 

6) When the pre-social security concept was established for pubic safety employees, the County Board approved the measure with the exact wording that the Virginia Retirement System used for the discontinuance of their public safety employee pre-social security benefit. It states the benefit lasts until the employee reaches “social security age”. This measures age 67 in most instances. The Arlington policy was changed after having been approved by the County Board and the resultant definition read that the benefit ceases when an employee starts drawing social security. Most public safety employees generally opt for early social security due to their concern that the nature of their service work will result in them dieing early. This decision results in a penalty associated with their social security earnings. Arlington shouldn’t compound that penalty. In fact, the mechanism for the county to track “when an employee starts drawing social security” requires staff time and additional correspondence with every retiree that reaches the age of 62. The retirement board must request tax information form each of these retirees for evaluation. Obviously, there are costs associated with this process that offset the savings. We recommend the pre-social security benefit be provided until the employee reaches social security age. This will reduce the penalty on the employee and save staff time and expense. (This was priced at $1.5 million last year)