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FOP Meeting with CAO Andy Kopplin |
MEETING WITH C.A.O. ANDY KOPPLIN
This evening the Fraternal Order of Police (Henry Dean, Jim Gallagher, Claude Schlesinger) met with New Orleans Deputy Mayor and CAO Andy Kopplin to discuss the City's new Vehicle Policy. Lt. Col. Jerry Sneed, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety also attended.
Immediately, the FOP requested that the implementation of the policy be delayed until August 29, 2010. The FOP cited the hardship placed on police officers, who on top of a 10% pay cut, may have to purchase a new car or seek a new insurance policy.
CAO Kopplin was amenable to this idea, stating he understood the hardships of making such large decisions in such a short period of time. He agreed to seek permission of the Mayor to delay implementation of the plan. A final answer should be available in the next day or two.
The FOP shared our information concerning the difficulty in obtaining an insurance rider that met the standards set in the Vehicle Policy. Mr. Kopplin acknowledged the problem, and stated that he was looking at alternatives. If the insurance riders required were not available to officers, Mr. Kopplin stated he would revise of "pull" that section of the Vehicle Policy.
The FOP explained the current practice of officers entering the "A" number of their take home vehicles into the TRIP system when the vehicle was in use, as a method of tracking who should pay the additional fees and who should not. We also pointed out that the TRIP system reduced the charges to a "per day" charge, so that officers were not charged the additional fee when the take home vehicle was not available. Mr. Kopplin stated that sounded like a workable system and had no objections to its continuance. He agreed that an officer should not be charged for the use of a vehicle when that vehicle was not available.
The FOP explained the IRS's "taxable fringe benefit rule" did not apply to police vehicles, and asked that police officers be exempted from having to complete the "Take-Home Vehicle Log". Mr. Kopplin asked the FOP to furnish documentation as to the IRS exemption for police cars, and stated he would take a look at the Vehicle Log issue. He also stated that it may benefit the City to have officers maintain the log, even if it was not required by the IRS. The FOP will furnish the requested documentation to the CAO's office.
The FOP attempted to address the subject of mileage measurements and starting and stopping points. Lt. Col Sneed was adamant that the distance would be measured from workplace to domicile, but Mr. Kopplin allowed that any reliable form of measuring that distance would be acceptable, as long as it was approved by officers' chain of command.
The FOP addressed numerous specific issues that have been brought to us by our members, such as K-9 officers, SWAT team members, Carpenter Shop, etc. In each case Mr. Kopplin responded that he would be willing to review any reasonable request for exemption or exception, as long as that request was forwarded through the officers' chain of command and had the approval of the Superintendent of Police.
We found our first meeting with the CAO to be very positive, and believe we were successful in having Mr. Kopplin take a second look at some areas of the Vehicle Policy. We thank both Mr. Kopplin and Lt. Col. Sneed for taking the time to meet with the Fraternal Order of Police, and look forward to meeting with them both in the future.
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Special Civil Service Commission Hearing |
SPECIAL CIVIL SERVICE MEETING
The New Orleans Civil Service Commission has called a special meeting for Wednesday, July 28, 2010, at 5:00PM, to consider a request from Mayor Landrieu to allow a waiver of the requirement in Civil Service Rule XII, Section 9.1 for 30 calendar days notice prior to imposing one unpaid furlough day each pay period for the remainder of 2010 in response to the City budget crisis.
The meeting is open to the public, however seating in the Civil Service Commission chamber is limited.
The Fraternal Order of Police will be on hand, along with our Attorney Claude Schlesinger, to represent the interests of our members.
Any member who may wish to attend is reminded that they cannot attend a Civil Service Commission meeting while on duty. They must be off-duty, or on a paid leave status.
This is a very emotional subject dealing with our members' ability to earn a living wage and put food on our families' table. Members who may attend are reminded to act in a professional, courteous manner at all times.
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Mandatory Unpaid Furlough |
MANDATORY UNPAID FURLOUGH
This afternoon, New Orleans Deputy Mayor and CAO Andrew Kopplin sent a correspondence addressed to all City of New Orleans employees, announcing the implementation of a mandatory, unpaid furlough program, to go into effect on August 1, 2010. In part, that correspondence reads,
"Therefore we are left with only the most unappealing of alternatives in order to balance this year's budget as required by law. As a result, we are implementing a one (1) day per pay period furlough for all employees; classified and unclassified, City Administration and Public Safety, general fund and non-general fund. Mayor Landrieu will also participate in the furlough. The furlough will be effective from August 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.".
Also this afternoon, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the Black Organization of Police (BOP) and the Police Association of New Orleans (PANO), met to discuss the letter referenced above. That meeting culminated with the issuance of a joint press release opposing the implementation of the administration's furlough proposal.
The Fraternal Order of Police, through our attorney Claude Schlesinger, placed calls to the Department of Labor and the Civil Service Commission in an attempt to gain information as to the legality of the proposed furlough plan under the Fair Labor and Standards Act, and whether the implementation of such a proposal would require prior approval from the Civil Service Commission. As of this writing, we are awaiting response to those calls.
The Fraternal Order of Police has meetings scheduled with Superintendent Serpas during the morning hours on Wednesday, July 28, 2010; and with CAO Kopplin during the afternoon on that same date. It is our intention to strongly oppose the implementation of the furlough plan at both of those meetings. Further, we intend to ask Chief Serpas, if the plan is to go into effect as scheduled, to relax current restrictions on the working of Paid Details for commissioned employees negatively impacted by the proposal.
The body of the FOP, BOP & PANO joint press release is as follows:
"While we recognize the city's current budget problems, the three organizations, BOP, FOP and PANO, unite in our opposition to the administration's furlough proposal.
We are police officers. We will continue to honor our oath to protect and serve. But, on behalf of our members and the citizens of New Orleans, we urge the administration to work toward a solution that will not so negatively impact public safety.
We stand ready to meet with the administration to discuss this matter further."
Henry Dean, FOP Paul Noel, PANO Simon Hargrove, BOP
We will keep all of our members informed as additional information comes available.
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FOP News & Information (7.27.10) |
NOPD POLICY CHANGES
We have received numerous calls concerning proposed policy changes being implemented by Chief Serpas. Some of the information being spread around the department is accurate and some of the information is not. Over the past several days we have exchanged emails with the Chief Serpas and/or the Major Staff on issues such as uncompensated overtime; reinstitution of J & T time in the TRIP system; changes to furlough request policies for EAP employees; and the status of probationary employees. We also attended yesterday's Civil Service Commission meeting and met privately with Civil Service Commission Director Lisa Hudson. FOP Attorney Claude Schlesinger met yesterday with Superintendent Serpas.
We have a meeting scheduled with Chief Serpas on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 (along with PANO and BOP) to discuss a host of issues facing our members. We are asking our members forbearance and trust. There are several issues we hope to resolve at this meeting, and we will be in a much better position to share information with our membership once this meeting has taken place.
If any member has a particular issue or problem they would like us to address with Superintendent Serpas, please advise us via return email.
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FOP News & Information (6.17.10) |
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MEETING REMINDER
The next meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police, Crescent City Lodge, will be held on Thursday, July 8, 2010. The meeting will be held at Our Lady of the Rosary School Cafeteria, located at 1342 Moss Street (entrance and parking off Esplanade Ave). Dinner to be served at 6:30PM with the meeting starting at 7:00PM.
A meeting agenda will be published in advance of the meeting date.
At the June meeting President Dean announced that, due to the State Conference being held August 1 - 4, 2010, there will be no General Membership meeting held in the month of August.
LEGAL PLAN FEES TO INCREASE
As has been discussed at both our May and our June FOP meetings, and published in the June 2010 FOP Newsletter, the fees currently charged to active NOPD members of the FOP Legal Defense Plan will be increasing from $5.00 per pay period to $10.00 per pay period, effective with the pay period beginning June 20, 2010. The increase will be seen, under the EG1 deduction code, on the pay check delivered on July 9, 2010.
It is important for our members to understand the necessity of this increase, and the total benefits provided under the FOP Legal Defense Plan.
The Fraternal Order of Police, Crescent City Lodge, provides legal services to its members through a combination of local treasury funds (administrative) and the National FOP Legal Defense Plan (criminal, civil). Since 2007, our local FOP has charged our members $5.00 per pay period ($130.00 per year) for this coverage. During that same period, the National FOP Legal Defense Plan has seen two fee increases, and is currently charging a total of $221.00 per year for each member enrolled in the full service option. In addition, the Louisiana State Lodge FOP has discontinued providing local lodges with a $40.00 per year rebate for each member enrolled in the FOP Legal Defense Plan. The combination of these factors leaves us no choice but to increase our local fees if we wish to continue to offer the same full coverage services that our members deserve and have come to expect. This increase does not effect the membership dues collected by our lodge, and has no impact whatsoever on our retired members.
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For many, especially here in the South, the term “collective bargaining” too often conjures up negative images of union bosses, unreasonable demands, work stoppages and strikes. For our fathers and grandfathers, finding work at a “union” shop depended more on whom you knew rather than what you knew.
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