Gov. Brewer signs criminal justice budget bill

The Governor signed HB2010, the Criminal Justice budget bill, averting a situation in which DPS most likely would have shut down this month.

The remainder of the budget is still being punted back and forth like a deflated football in a strange, never ending, game...

While I can say that we are relieved that hundreds of DPS officers and their families won't be forced to struggle along without paychecks, and happy that we can cancel the idea to raise money to help them out, we are distressed that this "budget process" allowed several provisions to pass without significant stakeholder discussion.

Read a summary of the budget bill here... Note: one portion of the legislature's summary is incorrect - see below.

The criminal justice budget bill, includes a provision to initiate the process of privatization of prisons.  The manner in which this idea was brought forth is sure to cause ADC employees to question their long-term job security and increase corrections staff turnover. Not to mention, we firmly believe incarceration of violent and dangerous prisoners is a government responsibility... not a for-profit activity.  As the RFP privatization process is initiated, we will keep you updated.

The positive portion of the bill for corrections employees is that it saves $29 million in prisoner heath care costs which will relieve some funding pressure within ADC.

It is my opinion, some of the items included in this budget process are more about ideology than cost savings.  For example, new dispatchers have lost the ability to enter a 25 year retirement plan. Frankly, placing new dispatchers into ASRS is not a cost savings.  In fact, both the employer and the new hire employee will pay more in retirement contributions, while receiving a less beneficial retirement benefit. I believe the dispatcher job is one of the most important and stressful jobs in law enforcement.  In my opinion, the best dispatcher candidates can only be recruited with the assurance that the pay and benefits will be enough to compensate them for the type of work they will be required to perform.  Dispatchers don't carry a gun, but we all know they save lives - sometimes ours.  We look forward to the day dispatchers have the retirement benefits they deserve.

Another provision changes the definition of salaries used to calculate retirement benefits for PSPRS members.  The summary incorrectly makes it seem that the provision only relates to DPS officers.  In fact, the provision applies to all members of the PSPRS retirement system.  Basically, the intent of the legislation is to prevent off duty job compensation to be included in retirement. I would suggest that the very few of you who work under such an arrangement, should make sure the portion of those payments normally paid toward retirement contributions is included in your pay.  I feel it would be inappropriate for the agency to retain the significant retirement contributions collected from the third party, or reduce the hourly rate paid by the third party. The money belongs to the officer working the job. Below is the language of the provision, effective immediately:

"...compensation does not include, for the purpose of computing retirement benefits, payments made directly or indirectly by the employer to the employee for work performed for a third party on a contracted basis or any other type of agreement under which the third party pays or reimburses the employer for the work performed by the employee for that third party, except for third party contracts between public agencies for law enforcement, training, wildfire and emergency management activities."

The budget stand-off between the Legislature and the Governor is not over.  The signing of the criminal justice bill is just one more step and it sounds like all sides are still far apart. It is the prediction of many, the budget issue will keep coming back even if an agreement is reached between the players.  In fact, some of the observers at the legislature, including me, think the legislature will be called back to negotiate further budget cuts. 

Preparation for negotiating the "next" budget is already underway.  Expect the "next" budget negotiations to be even more brutal.

Fraternally,

Jim Mann, Executive Director
Fraternal Order of Police
Arizona Labor Council
 

"FOP 4 Life".....check out the State FOP Web Page at: http://www.azfop.com/