HPROA Members,
On Thursday January 6, 2011 Bill Elkin, Bob Barnard and myself attended the monthly meeting of the HPOU. Gary Blankenship, Pres. of the HPOU, told me that Mayor Parker was going to attend their meeting to address the newspaper articles and rumors about city pensions. He invited us to attend.
The mayor assured all present that she had no intension of doing anything to the police or municipal employees pension. She stated she was only interested in bringing the fire pension more into line with the police and municipal pensions. The police and municipal unions work under a "meet and confer" labor agreement while the fire union has a "collective bargaining" agreement. She would like to do away with the fire unions "collective bargaining" and have them in a weaker "meet and confer" agreement like the police, and municipal employees.
After the mayor finished and left, Larry Doss and Ralph Marsh, from HPOPS, answered questions. They reminded everyone that HPOPS also has a binding "meet and confer" agreement with the city that is in effect until 2017. The relationship between HPOPS and the city will stay as it is until then.
We (HPROA) will monitor the efforts of the City of Houston during the legislative session, that is now in session, to be sure that they do not mess with our pension.
Steve Rayne
President
HPROA
