Police sergeants form new union in wake of split

Maricopa Police Sgt. Ed Alameda is the chairman of the new Fraternal Order of Police Maricopa Sergeants Council.

The union was formed after the Maricopa City Council split the City of Maricopa Police Association in June, leaving only officers in that union.
By ADAM GAUB Managing Editor Maricopa Monitor Published: Thursday, January 21, 2010 11:28 PM MST

Roughly six months after the Maricopa City Council voted to split the police union between officers and sergeants, the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police announced last week they had accepted Maricopa’s newest union group.

The Maricopa Sergeants Council, which will be open to any of the 10 sergeants now serving within the Maricopa Police Department, has been formed with a majority of the department’s sergeants already joining in.
According to a release from the F.O.P., the sergeants have already petitioned the city for recognition of the Maricopa Sergeants Council in accordance with that June 2 vote.

“We consider the request for recognition as a positive step forward in establishing a professional and effective relationship between the city and the sergeants,” said Sgt. Ed Alameda, chairman of the Maricopa Sergeants Council, in a press release.

The primary purpose of the Council is to advocate for the interests of members during discussions with the city concerning wages, benefits and working conditions, Alameda said.

Alameda was one of seven sergeants who petitioned the City Council in 2009 to have sergeants removed from the City of Maricopa Police Association, which was chaired at the time by Sgt. Aki Stant, who was opposed to the switch.

COMPA attorney Martin Bihn said in June that the move to split the union into two entities was one directed as much at Stant and his supporters as it was at avoiding any potential conflict of interest as was claimed by the seven sergeants petitioning for the split.

“The leader, Aki Stant, has been very vocal,” Bihn said. “That looks to us like what is at work here.”

Stant expressed his frustration with the move in a June 4 e-mail to the Monitor.

“Most problematic... is the precedent the council has now set. By voting ‘yes,’ the mayor and the majority of council has allowed a small minority of employees to circumvent both the city’s meet and confer ordinance and the MOU process,” he said.

“This minority, seven out of a bargaining unit of fifty, has exploited the council for selfish purposes and has opened up an unnecessary rift between sergeants and officers.”

Stant was placed on administrative leave in the days after the meeting for nearly four months, having been investigated on more than a dozen allegations, including leaking sensitive materials to the media. He was ultimately returned to duty on Oct. 5, receiving a one-day suspension to which he remains in the process of appealing internally.

COMPA itself is embroiled in a lawsuit, filed Sept. 15 against city manager Kevin Evans and the Maricopa City Council for an alleged breach of the city’s meet-and-confer agreement with the union.

Specifically, COMPA is claiming Evans delayed the finalization of the contract between the city and the union for five months, while also discussing the COMPA contract proposals on at least three occasions with the Maricopa City Council in executive session.
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