|
|
I would like to share with you an email I received on
May 13, 2005, in response to the Mississippi PBA
Division Office sending out a CAP-WIZ Legislative Alert
in regard to HB-18. Had this House bill passed it would
have made all state law enforcement officers essentially
“AT WILL” employees. In the Alert we encouraged members
to send a message of opposition to their Representative
and to forward the alert to other officers. We provided
the means for them to complete each of these tasks in
the alert.
The purpose in sharing this message is not to condemn or
try to embarrass the officer who sent the message. The
purpose is to address the attitude displayed in the
message. The email received by PBA came from an officer
who is not a PBA member, but had received the alert from
a fellow officer who is. The attitude displayed in the
message is much to common to our profession and is
detrimental to improving the law enforcement profession
overall. Without a doubt this kind of attitude is a
principal reason why the law enforcement profession
remains behind the cure in regard to salaries,
retirement, work environment and employee benefits.
One of our worst enemies to improving salaries, benefits
and work environment issues quite often comes from
within our own ranks. It’s the attitude of some officers
themselves. The “Us vs Them Attitude” only serves
to divide members of our profession. You know the old
saying “Divide and Conquer”. It matters not whether we
are divided by our opposition or we do it to ourselves,
the end results will be the same. Others take the
“What’s In It For Me Attitude”. If it does not
directly affect them personally they are not interested.
Another is the “Personal Agenda Attitude” where
someone has their own personal goals for self benefit
and tries to uses the association to accomplish them. If
we are going to succeed in improving the overall
profession of law enforcement we must get past such
attitudes and become united. We must stand together for
what’s best for all, or any segment of our profession.
If we do this, everyone will prosper in the long term.
Once we decide to put the adverse attitudes away and
unite to accomplish something, we must realize
ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT FACT.
ITS ALL
POLITICS..........................................
Regardless whether the issue is pay, retirement, work
environment, employee benefits, having better laws to
fight crime and protect officers, or better equipment to
work with, it is still politics. In every one of these
issues, whether at the city, county state or national
level your dealing with the legislation of law or the
spending of taxpayers money. Our elected officials have
the authority over both......”ITS ALL POLITICS.”
This is why PBA encourages local chapters to become
involved in the political process. It’s why political
candidates are screened and endorsed for office and why
we lobby the state legislature on issues to benefit
officers and the law enforcement profession, because
“ITS ALL POLITICS.”
Because “ITS ALL POLITICS, we have initiated the use of
a service called CAP-WIZ.. The program enables
PBA to email legislative alerts and updates to members,
concerning issues of interest to law enforcement before
the State Legislature or US Congress. The Updates
include informative information on these issues and do
not request action of members. The Alerts however
include informative information and a request for the
members to take some sort of action. Usually this action
will be to send an email to your elected representatives
in support or opposition of some legislation before
them. This can be done by the member anytime day or
night. It takes about two minutes to to send the message
requested and you don’t even have to know who your
representative or congressman is, just fill in you zip
code and the program will tell you who they are and
address the email message to them automatically.
CAP-WIZ is a powerful political tool that enables
your voice to be heard, and believe me every voice
counts. You as an individual law enforcement officer,
regardless of how many jobs you work or what shift you
work can now have your voice heard, so use it. Political
activity requires large numbers of people in unity on an
issue in order to be successful.....so lets hear from
you when the next CAP-WIZ alert goes out.
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
mspba@bellsouth.net
Cc:
Sent:
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 9:57 AM
Subject:
HB-18
I understand that the MS PBA is
trying to get officers to contact their representatives
about HB-18, but what is the MS PBA doing to obtain the
same amount of time required for retirement for local
officers? Presently, we can retire at 25 years and the
state employees can retire at 20. I don't mind helping
those who will help ALL Law Enforcement to be on equal
terms.
RESPONSE MESSAGE:
I appreciate your interest in our effort to oppose
Mississippi HB-18. We will welcome the help of all law
enforcement officers in Mississippi in our effort to
create positive change in the law enforcement
profession. You are right, we have been encouraging our
members to contact their representative in opposition to
this bill. Many of them did and the bill has since died
in the Salary and Fees of Public Officials Committee of
the House on 05-28-05.
This bill would have removed all state law enforcement
officers from under the due process protections of the
State Personnel Board making them "AT WILL" employees.
In regard to our action on this bill, I would like to
note a couple of considerations;
First, it is the state legislature that enacted the
civil service laws that many of our city and county law
enforcement officers are currently employed under. If
the legislature had passed HB-18 to take such protection
away from state employees, should we not be seriously
concerned that they may then decide to repeal the civil
service laws which protect city and county officers as
well. In fact I believe officers of the Columbus Police
Department are protected under civil service enacted by
the state legislature.
Secondly we do represent all of law enforcement. Our
very actions in this matter illustrate that fact.
Whether it is an issue such as this which adversely
affects only part of the law enforcement community or an
issue which effects all law enforcement, we will be
there to support what's in the best interest of law
enforcement officers. The US and THEM Syndrome, when
used within the spectrum of the law enforcement
community has no place in our organization and quite
frankly is a major reason why law enforcement is so far
behind the curve of other professions in pay,
retirement, employee benefits and work environment.
Next I would like to address the retirement issue you
referred to. I believe you will find you are in error if
you research state law enforcement officer benefits vs
city officer benefits.. With the exception of the
Mississippi Highway Patrol all state law enforcement
officers are under the same retirement system you are
which is "PERS" Public Employees Retirement System of
Mississippi and they have the same retirement benefits.
You can confirm this very easily, by going to the "PERS
website. We are trying to be sensible with our
legislative action. By that I mean there is a time to
aggressively push a legislative issue and there is a
time for restraint. The last couple of years, as well as
now is a time for restraint on the retirement issue
because of economic issues. We can get as many
retirement bills introduced as we want to, but the
reality is that none will pass. We know this and the
legislator that introduces the bill knows this. Many
legislators would introduce retirement legislation at
our request and PBA could do that for the appearance
that we are addressing the problem, but it would not
change the reality. In light of this, to keep from
wasting everyone's time and in an effort to actually
accomplish something, we have dealt with issues we felt
could be passed with a little creativity and some hard
work. Keep in mind that too that the legislative agenda
of Mississippi PBA is determined by vote of it's Board
of Directors. This board is made up of active
Mississippi law enforcement officers such as
yourself.that have been elected by the membership.
I encourage you to visit our association web site at
www.mspba.org for much more overall information
concerning PBA. Below are just a few issues address by
PBA since 2002, on behalf of all Mississippi law
enforcement officers . PBA initiated the legislation
and successfully lobbied for the passage of each of
these issues.
1. Increase the in line of duty death benefits for
ALL law enforcement officers in the state of Mississippi
from $10,000.00 to $20,000.00 in 2002 and in 2004 from
$20,000.00 to the current benefit of $40,000.00, which
is an average benefit in the southeastern states.
2. Created an independent source of revenue for the
trust fund from which the death benefits are paid. This
placed the fund in a solvent financial position without
being dependent on the legislature to appropriate new
money for the fund from the state's general fund.
3. Created a new statue which requires that any
criminal allegation against any officer which is alleged
to have occurred while in the conduct of official duty
must go before a circuit court judge for a probable
cause hearing before an arrest warrant can be issued.
4. Created new law which provides for disability
benefits for law enforcement officers injured in the
line of duty resulting in disability. This law, passed
during the 2005 session set up a trust fund from which
the benefits are to be paid, established the source of
revenue for the trust fund, and provides for disabled
officers to receive 34% of their base pay for up to 12
months, in addition to workers comp benefits.
The benefit from this bill combined with workers comp
benefits of (66%) will total !00% of the officer's base
pay for up to 12 months, The trust fund and revenue
source is to be established July 1 2005. Benefits to
officers will commence July 1 2006.
I thank you for your interest and your time. I hope this
information has resolved your concerns and illustrated
to you that PBA represents all of law enforcement. I am
not aware of any other law enforcement association in
the State of Mississippi that has represented law
enforcement to this extent. I will be glad to speak with
you regarding any further questions or issues you may
have.
Again, we welcome having your help in our endeavor to
create positive change in the benefits and work
environment for law enforcement officers.
Thanks
Tommy Simpson, Director
Organizational Services, West Region
Southern States Police Benevolent Assoc., Inc.
1-800-233-3606 Ext# 747
Email:
tsimpson@sspba.org
Visit our web site at
www.sspba.org
|