PEACE OFFICERS RESEARCH ASSOCIATION OF NEVADA
P. O. BOX 40415
Reno, Nv.

PORAN NEWS ARTICLE

SITE UPDATED January 28, 2012

Last month I brought to your attention the attack by the City of Reno on collective bargaining by filing a Petition for Declaratory Relief with the Nevada Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board (EMRB) to clarify SB 98.

 Named as “Respondents” in this Complaint were all of the bargaining groups in the City.  The Petition is stating that SB 98, under the provisions of NRS 288.075(1)(b) is ambiguous and that an interpretation from the EMRB is needed to support the City claim that supervisors cannot be part of and cannot collectively bargaining. 

As a result of this Petition, several of the City’s bargaining groups, RPSAEA, RPPA, RAPG and the Reno Fire Battalion Chiefs retained Mike Langton, Esq. and myself to represent them in defending this attack.  IAFF, Local 731, retained Larry Digesti, Esq. to represent them and to work in collaboration with all of the groups to show our solidarity in this regard.

We have also reached out to all of the unions, associations and professional groups statewide to support our defensive efforts to end this attack.  In that end we received verbal support from the Henderson Police Supervisors Association, the Las Vegas Police Manager Association and the North Las Vegas Police Supervisors Association.  We believe that we also have the support of the Professional Fire Fighters of Nevada.  Lastly, PORAN has voted to support defending this attack as well by either acting as an Intervenor or doing a “friend-of-the-court” “Amicus” brief.

I have personally contacted and obtained commitment from Nevada Assemblyman and Speaker John Oceguera (D – Las Vegas) to support and testify in this hearing, if needed, when this issue is presented to the EMRB for resolution. Speaker Oceguera is now a candidate for US Congress.  He was instrumental in ensuring that SB 98 only eliminated those “management supervisors” who fit the definition as described in SB 98.   I will also be requesting the support and testimony  of Nevada Assemblywoman and Chairwoman of Assembly Government Affairs Committee Marilyn Kirkpatrick (D – Las Vegas) to reinforce Speaker Oceguera’s legislative intent.

Here is the definition again as read into the legislative record by Assembly Minority Leader Goicoechea (R - Eureka) to provide the intent of the changes for clarification purposes.)

The new language defined a supervisory employee as one who is:

 “appointed by the employer who has authority on behalf of the employer to:

1       Hire, transfer, suspend lay off, terminate, promote, discharge, assign, reward or

       discipline other employees OR responsibility to direct them, to adjust their grievances

      or effectively to recommend such action; AND

2       Make budgetary decisions; AND

3       Be consulted or decisions relating to collective bargaining. This does not mean that the

      supervisory employee actually is consulted or would have to be consulted on particular

      collective decisions; instead, it means that the supervisory employee is part of

management such that there is the possibility that the supervisory employee could be consulted on a collective bargaining decision.

      Thus to be prohibited from being a member of an employee organization, a supervisory employee must have authority in all 3 areas and the exercise of the authority must not be merely routine or clerical nature but require the use of independent judgment.”

      In our opinion, this legislative intent language becomes the cornerstone for the City’s Petition request.  It is my opinion, that this legislative intent clearly defined the supervisors who could not collectively bargain and who could not be included in our bargaining units.  And, accordingly, no one involved in any of the listed City of Reno bargaining groups fit the definition according to their job descriptions.  It is our hope that the EMRB shares our views in this regard.

Our attorney’s have now filed the Answer to the City’s Complaint and are in the process of preparing our motions for Summary Judgment to dismiss the Complaint based on the City’s failure to state a cause of action.   Each individually named Respondent will file this and other possible motions with the EMRB and will await their decision in moving this matter forward.  It is our hope that the EMRB grant the dismissal motion as we believe the language

of SB 98 is clear and unambiguous.

In summary and as I stated last month, this is another attack on our collective bargaining process and should be an eye opener for all employee associations in Nevada as it shows how little respect our employers have for their employee’s rights. 

ADDITIONAL UPDATES:

The National Trooper’s Coalition is holding their national conference in Las Vegas during the week of February 6 -10, 2012.  PORAN’s vice president Axel James, who is also the president of the Nevada Department of Public Safety Association, invited the PORAN Board of Directors to hold it’s February Board of Director’s meeting at the start of the conference.  The conference and our February Board meeting is being held on February 8, 2012 at the South Point Hotel Casino and Spa in Las Vegas. 

On February 7, 2012, PORAN’s directors are again joining forces with the majority of law enforcement associations in planning our strategies for interviewing and supporting incumbent and non-incumbent elections in local, state and federal elections.   Hosting this initial meeting is the  Las Vegas Police Protective Association at their building in Las Vegas.  Michelle Jotz, LVPPA’s Director of Government Affairs is the coordinator.  Chris Collins, LVPPA president is to be commended for establishing the collaborative unification of this process and ensuring that we move forward in the same direction without contradicting each others efforts.

Lastly, as we move forward to this very important election year, please remember that the attack on our collective bargaining efforts can best be won by having our members, their families and their family’s families vote for those candidates who support collective bargaining, our public employees, our public employees retirement system.   I do realize that better than 90% of our law enforcement brothers and sisters are very conservative in their beliefs.  I am not asking that you ignore those conservative beliefs when you vote. I am asking that you realize that if we vote for Senators like Mike Roberson (R – Las Vegas) then you are voting to eliminate collective bargaining, and opening the door for his hands to reach into PERS and begin the process to eliminate our benefits.  Please remember that when you go to the polls.  Senator Roberson unfortunately is not up for re-election this year.

PORAN will be recommending and endorsing candidates that support our wages, conditions of employment and benefits.  Please support those recommendations when they are made later this year.

Our March Board of Director meeting will take place in Reno on Friday March 2, 2012 at 1130 hours.  Please attend if you can.

Stay safe and wear your vest!

Ron Dreher Government Affairs Director – PORAN  775-830-8877

 November, 2011 - Article -

This month I’m going to continue addressing the attack on the public sector labor groups by the “business community conservatives”.  The “conservatives” aka the Chambers of Commerce and those really overpaid CEO’s of the multi-national corporations including the “bought and paid for” corporate media, continue via their propaganda marketing approach,  to blame the economic woes in the US and in Nevada on the public sector unions.  Those same conservatives are paying huge campaign contributions to continue to buy the votes of those who will carry their agenda and continue to bash the public sector employees.   In a Reno Gazette Journal article published on Sunday, November 6, 2011, a group calling themselves the “American Conservative Union” gave “conservative all-stars” kudos to Nevada State Senators Greg Brower (R) Reno, Don Gustavson (R) Sparks, Elizabeth Halseth (R) Las Vegas, Michael Roberson (R) Las Vegas and James Settelmeyer (R) Gardnerville. We as professional peace officers may think that this was a good thing.  Well….please think again and keep on reading.For the record each of these Senators voted against the peace officer bill of rights bill (AB 265) in the 2011 Nevada Legislature. It passed by one vote and that was due to the affirmative vote of Democrat Senator John Lee.

Happy Veteran’s Day and Happy Thanksgiving;

Here is an update to last month’s article – Mark Amodei (R) won the election and is Nevada’s newest congressman.  Congressman Amodei was a very well respected Nevada Senator and was a supporter or law enforcement.  However, as a congressman Mark has aligned himself with the antil-labor groups.  I can only hope he can remain somewhat independent  but I seriously doubt it as he is up for reelection next year.  Keep in mind that this was a very expensive temporary election to fill congressman Heller’s seat when he was appointed by Governor Sandoval to fill Senator Ensign’s seat.

This month I would like to address the Nevada collective bargaining process or better known as negotiations, and the current conditions of “bargaining” that is taking place in our state.  A little history:   Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 288.150 describes the mandatory topics of bargaining in Nevada.  Basically this status covers working conditions and wages and limits collective bargaining to those areas.   Local government employees must notify their employers by February 1 if they plan on bargaining economic issues. Most contracts allow for this to occur the year that contract is going to expire.  Most collective bargaining agreements (CBA) are tied to the fiscal year July 1 through June 30, versus the calendar year – January 1, to December 31. 

So…with the economic downturn, and Nevada being number 1 in the US and topping the list of unemployment and foreclosed homes, it comes as no shock that most local government employers desired to open the CBA’s this year and demand concessions from the local associations.  So…what is wrong with management asking for concessions from the public employees in these times?  First and foremost in answering this question would be to determine is it really necessary and can management justify their request for concessions aka “take-aways”, by being “transparent” that is to say by showing our associations that they truly are losing revenues.  Are those revenue losses due to management inability to budget correctly or they just foolishly spending? 

In order to reach either a “master” aka “new” agreement or a successor agreement in today’s negotiations in Nevada we must, in my opinion,  have trust in Management’s numbers and believe that what they are demanding in the form of concessions are appropriate and justified. Trust must be earned and verified.  In order to trust our employers with the number that they are telling us that they need to “balance the budget” we need to verify that information. 

NRS 288.180 (2) provides us with a tool that enables us to request information from management to determine if what they are telling us is the truth. We must first officially request   Management to divulge its budget, it Consolidated Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and any and all other financial data that is put forward in the public meetings and approved by the elected County Commissioners, Boards of Supervisors or City Councils.   Once we get this information we then must go through those documents to validate Management’s demands.  This is not a simple process and we usually need to contract with a very good Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and have them review those numbers.  In my nearly 29 years of being involved in the collectively bargaining process on behalf of professional peace officer associations and regular employee associations it always amazes me what I find when we hold Management accountable to be up front with their demands.

If we can show that Management’s numbers are purposefully and intentionally skewed then there is obviously no trust and the negotiation process proceeds through the resolution procedures as described in NRS 288.200 and NRS 288.215. (Fact finding and Last Best Offer Arbitration.) If on the other hand our review of Management’s numbers are confirmed then we work with Management and negotiate concessions along with negotiating safeguards to ensure reinstatement of those concessions in favorable economic conditions. To ensure that trust remains we negotiate “favorite nations clauses” which are similar to “Me too” clauses.

In today’s negotiation climate I have found that there is no “negotiations” on the side of management when “trust” is a factor.  There are one sided proposals and demands to either accept those proposals or face impasse or arbitration. In my opinion “Good faith negotiations” do not seem to exist in today’s negotiation public sector climate.   What does exist is the “my way or the highway” demands.  And that’s really not negotiating in good faith. We then have to take our complaints of prohibited practices by Management to Nevada’s Local Government Employee/Employer Management Relations Board (EMRB) for dispute resolution  Unfortunately that is the conditions that we, as labor are operating under.  The anti-labor attacks on public employees from Washington DC throughout the States and down to Nevada continue to eliminate collective bargaining.

To reiterate what I said last month – “The ball is in our park to defend this attack.  It’s up to each and every one of us to do our little part to protect what they, the ultra conservatives, are attempting to take away. Are you all ready to do something about this attack?”

Remember to sign up for the PORAC conference in November.  It’s being held in Reno at the Grand Sierra Resort  (GSR) in November between November 17 and November 20, 2011.  PORAN will also be holding its annual conference at the same place and time.  This year we will be recommending a few bylaws changes and will be holding elections for new vice-president and treasurer.  Our representation training ( 8 hour course) will take place on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at the GSR.    PORAN’s representative training is Nevada POST certified and covers NRS 289 (Peace Officer Bill of Rights), NRS 288 (Collective Bargaining) and NRS 284 (State Peace Officers) issues.

Our Board of Directors meeting for November will be held after our training again on Wednesday, November 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the Grand Sierra Resort.    Please attend if you can.