President’s Message June 9, 2007
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
With the ending of another legislative session, it is always a good to look over what was done, and in some cases, what wasn’t done in Austin. As retired Houston police officers, we also must keep an eye on the things happening in Houston. Sometimes deals are made that suddenly show up in Austin.
Over all the session was good for retired officers. We must not take for granted the great work done by Bill Elkin, our Executive Director. He is one of those unassuming people who without much fanfare just get the job done. This year he has done it again. I won’t go over the list of bills passed, but anyone can check our HPROA website for an update report from Bill.
The present Mayor of Houston has been in the news lately as he is trying to renege on his promises to the Municipal Employees Pension Fund. You will remember how he agreed a couple of years ago to a series of payments to that fund by the city. The employee trustees were finally forced to agree to the deal because the Mayor whined so much about the city’s obligations to fund the system that he won the battle of public opinion.
We have been assured by HPOPS that the Honorable Mayor’s crayfishing on the municipal employees doesn’t affect our pension fund. But we can’t forget that he has made similar promises to our fund. Hopefully we won’t have to fight this battle again for our retirement funds. The mayor is trying to win the battle of public opinion through the media again by dumping the blame for his tactics onto the poor city employee. This sounds all too familiar.
It is a sad circumstance that accepted business ethic today is to make contracts that are never intended to be honored. Some business people make these contractual promises, fully intending never to pay up what they agreed to. When the bill comes due, the attitude is if you don’t like it, sue me. By taking this course, they feel sure they will be able to reduce what they ethically owe, since courts seem to force compromises. These kinds of people consider this dishonesty "good business practices". The present Mayor brings to the City of Houston the business approach to solve the city’s management problems. Kind of scary isn’t it?
We need to support our fellow retired city employees anyway we can. Regardless of the outcome of the Municipal Employee’s fight for their rights, we must be ever vigilant and give our support to our pension fund managers and elected trustees as they protect ours.
Regarding deals made in Houston that suddenly shows up in Austin, a small controversy occurred after an amendment was added to a bill in the Senate after it had passed the House. It seems that the City, the police department and the Houston Police Officers Union had worked together to clean up some language in the old arbitration law. At the last minutes of the session they had added an amendment that in essence gives HPPU the power to decide what labor organizations can have fees and dues collected for them by the city. From my understanding, this could have serious consequences for HPPU and others since their supplemental insurance payments, as well as dues, are presently collected for them by the city.
How this effected HPROA is that some of our members are in DROP and are not members of the majority bargaining agent, the HPPU. Bill Elkin testified against the amendment because it would be detrimental to our members being able to conveniently pay their supplemental insurance premiums. In the end it didn’t matter that he testified as the deal was already cut and the amendment passed without opposition. Scary how these thing happen, isn’t it? Makes you realize how important it is for HPROA, all of us, to be constantly represented in Austin.
Locally, we are seeking a meeting with Chief Hurtt about the arbitrary changes to the firearms qualification procedure. Bill Elkin has had some contact with the department’s legal section and we will continue to follow up about this.
