Jerry DeFoor, President
The Association’s elections for 2006-2007 are underway as ballots are being prepared to be mailed out to all current members. This is the second election held since the adoption of our new election procedures developed under the leadership of Chuck Smith.
The old election procedure required a member to be present at the August meeting each year to cast their vote for officers. As you know, the new election procedure establishes an election process that is done by mail-in ballot. This encourages more of the members to participate in choosing our leaders. I know this is a good thing for our association.
I am a candidate for re-election as President. I appreciate the honor of serving in this office and seek the support of all of you to elect me for another one year term. This has been a learning year for me as we have worked to keep our contacts with our elected representatives and to establish relationships with the newer members of the legislature. The principle task facing us during the remainder of the year is to prepare for the 2007 legislative session. We expect there will be another effort to make changes to our pension system. It will be our primary goal to prevent any changes to our pension system.
Another task we will work on is to build stronger relationships with the elected and appointed leadership of the City of Houston, including the police department. There has been contact, but we want to build on these contacts to establish stronger and more constant communication with city representatives. It is a good thing to be able to talk to the people in positions of leadership in city government.
In years past, there has been little constructive contact with the Houston Police Officers Union. It is another of my goals to reach out to the leadership of the HPOU to find those issues of mutual interest where each organization can work together to protect the interest of all active and retired police officers.
It has been a real pleasure to work with Bill Elkin and the members of the Board on the association’s business. We have been very fortunate to have so many dedicated HPD retirees who are willing to devote so much of their time to look out for the interest of all of us. I ask that you re-elect me as your President, allowing me to continue this important work on your behalf. 
