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King County Police Officers Guild General Membership Meeting July 25, 2007 Sammamish MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Eggert – President Pat Bowen – Vice President Ron Kierce – Secretary/Treasurer Thad Frampton – Board Member # 1 Mark Lemoine – Board Member # 3 Marcus Williams – Board Member # 4 Mark Rorvik – Board Member # 5 JK Pewitt – Board Member # 6 Paul Thiede – Pct. 4 CALLED TO ORDER: The General Membership Meeting was called to order at 1615 hours by President Steve Eggert. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES: The Minutes from the June 27, 2007 General Membership Meeting have been posted at all worksites and on line. They were submitted at the meeting for review. A motion to approve the meeting minutes was made by Marcus Williams. The motion was seconded by Mark Lemoine and approved by all. POLITICAL ENDORSEMENT: The KCPOG Political Action Committee interviewed and forwarded the following names to the General Membership for endorsement consideration: Stephen Lamphere – Burien City Council Maggie Fimia – Shoreline City Council Kathleen Keene – Burien City Council A roundtable discussion commenced and additional information on the candidates being considered was brought forward. Stephen Lamphere is pro annexation for the White Center/North Highline area and supports existing public safety arrangements with the KCSO. Kathleen Keene is also seen as a current supporter of the KCSO / Burien Public safety contract and support annexation as well. Various input was received from the membership that was not supportive of Maggie Fimia’s request for endorsement. Motions to endorse Stephen Lamphere and Kathleen Keene for Burien City Council were made by Marcus Williams and seconded by Mark Rorvik. Both motions passed. The endorsement vote for Maggie Fimia died due to a lack of motion. SERGEANT’S EXAM: As many of you already know, the Sheriff has contacted Anita Whitfield, of the County’s Human Resources Division and requested that the Sergeant’s exam be dismissed. Anita complied with the Sheriff’s request and in turn threw out the test. The Guild is aware there are likely many names on the final Sergeant’s list that the Sheriff doesn’t approve of. This coupled with the fact that the Sheriff waited for the entire exam process to unfold before deciding that she didn’t’ like the test, seems to be very coincidental at best. The Guild had also advised the Sheriff a day after the written exam how unhappy the membership was and that advice was not acted upon until weeks later, after the final results were known. The Guild feels Anita Whitfield went beyond the authority granted by the Civil Service Rules, thus has no statutory authority to dismiss the exam. The Guild has informed the County that an Unfair Labor Practice will be filed with PERC and a Demand to Bargain will be made shall any future testing take place. We are in a profession that necessitates following rules and procedures. There have been many opinions as to what should have happened, when, how, etc. The biggest issue we all probably agree with is the importance to adhere with the rule of law at all costs. For better or worse, agree or disagree; if the process is circumvented, for whatever reason or agenda might be, then we have all started down the slippery slope with outcomes far worse than a Sergeant’s exam. ARBITRATION STATUS – TWO HOUR MINIMUM FOR PHONE CALLS: An Arbiter has heard the case and has decided to give the case back to PERC for final dispensation. The Arbiter did reach a decision to that there was a pretty clear past practice of paying the two hours had been established. This is good news for us; however, there are many other factors that the Arbiter did not address. The case is now back before PERC so it will be sometime before there is any resolution. COMPENSATION FOR ON-DUTY WEEKENDS: The Guild has put this issue “on the table” during the opening of contract negotiations and will address it as part of negotiations – when and negotiations resume. ADJOURNED: The General Membership Meeting Adjourned at 1700 hrs. |