Minutes of
January, 2009
Meeting of the Pinal County Deputies Association
The regularly scheduled January, 2009, PCDA meeting was held on Thursday, January, 15. The meeting started at 1806 hours and was chaired by Treasurer Aubrey Keck because the elected President, Troit Stowe, had resigned upon his retirement from police work. The following members and representatives from AZCOPS were in attendance:
PCDA Board Members Rob Monashefsky, S.G. Gillen, Todd Nelson and Aubrey Keck;
PCDA Secretary Lanie Bethka;
AZCOPS Attornies Martin Bihn and Dennis Fitzgibbons; AZCOPS President Larry A. Lopez; AZCOPS Staff Tim Clark; and PCDA members Jeffrey Pizzi, Dave Hausman, Robert Evans, Kevin Keck, Lisa Swinton and Mark Guemes.
Treasurer Keck opened the meeting with a report on the status of Meet and Confer. He announced that the Pinal County Board of Supervisors had voted unanimously to adopt PCDA's Meet and Confer Ordinance on December 10, 2008. He told the group that the next step was to take the petitions to eligible Pinal County Sheriff's Office employees and obtain a minimum of 30 percent of those employee's signatures on the petitions. After the signatures are collected, then, within 30 days, all eligible employees must vote on having PCDA/AZCOPS as their bargaining representative. Fifty percent of those employees voting must vote in favor of PCDA representation for it to take effect.
Treasurer Keck told the members that PCDA would use the Pinal County Election Office to conduct the election. When the selection is made, the winner will negotiate with the County Manager, the County Director of Personnel and the County Board of Supervisors. Negotiations will start in the early fall of 2009 and will effect the 2010 budget. He added that one of the items PCDA would be asking for is a separate Law Enforcement Merit System.
AZCOPS Attorney Martin Bihn said that AZCOPS would draft a petition so that PCDA could start getting signatures. He asked to set up a meeting with the PCDA Board and AZCOPS respresentatives including John Durant on next Wednesday, January 21, 2009, at 1830 hours at A and M restaurant in Florence, Arizona, to finalize plans for the petition drive and election, along with ideas from everyone on issues to be presented during negotiations. He said the PCDA must get Sheriff Babeu on board and work with him regarding hours and working conditions.
Tim Clark of AZCOPS said that the parent organization, CWA, will provide training and assistance with negotiations.
Treasurer Keck brought up the need to appoint a Board Member to fill an empty slot. Members suggested getting someone from the jail. Several names were mentioned. The issue was tabled until the February meeting.
Board member Todd Nelson noted that President Troit Stowe's last day at work was January 8, 2009. He resigned January 9, 2009 from his presidency. He appointed Jeffrey Pizzi as interim acting president until the next regularly scheduled election, which will be held in November, 2009. The board unanimously accepted the appointment.
Acting President Jeff Pizzi asked about appointing a Vice President. The Board voted to table that issue to a later date.
Acting President Pizzi said he wanted to lay the ground work to negotiate for doubling the uniform allowance. AZCOPS Attorney Martin Bihn pointed out that we need to deal with discipline issues and stay away from political issues. Let us have high hopes for Sheriff Babeu to bring us into the 21st Century.
Acting President Pizzi suggested that we open the lines of communication with Sheriff Babeu by either sending him an introductory memo and/or setting up a face to face meeting.
PCDA Member Kevin Keck said that the Detention staff are in limbo. They urgently need decent leadership, equipment, a way to address safety issues, deal with the issues concerning compensatory time and there needs to be a way to clean up paper trail problems at the jail. He said that the jail needs PCDA stewards . . . at least one for each shift. AZCOPS Attorney Martin Bhin suggested that PCDA needed stewards for every shift in patrol, as well as stewards for the civilian members.
The meeting adjourned at 1922 hours.
