LEGISLATIVE AGENDA FOR 2010

A SPECIAL REQUEST FROM LEGISLATIVE CHAIRMAN
KEVIN CARROLL -- FEBRUARY. 10, 2010

Brother and Sisters,
I am writing to you about a matter of great importance. In November 2006, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission directed staff to study compensation for employees of the Commonwealth. Staff were specifically directed to review a range of issues related to employee total compensation, including the adequacy of salaries and benefits and how State employee total compensation compared to that provided by other public and private employers. Findings of the study were presented to the Commission on October 14, 2008. I am enclosing a copy of that PDF document to this Email. I cannot urge you enough to read this 192 page document. In the study a wide range of benefits and issues are discussed. The study references to surveys, interviews and questionnaires that were administered across the state. Based on the responses to these questionnaires, interviews and benefit comparisons recommendations were made by the JLARC (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission) to the members of the General Assembly and the Governor’s office.  Those recommendations have now appeared in the form of legislation to be considered in this General Assembly Session. I refer to HB1189, HB511, HB118, SB232 and many others. I have my own opinion about what the report shows that I will reserve for the moment.

I want you to know that the FOP was not given an opportunity to appear before the committee. Neither I nor any other member of the state board was ever contacted to provide input. There is a list of state and professional agencies that did participate in the study on pages 146 and 147 of the document.  What I need from you is your opinion of what the study is reporting. I have my own beliefs on employee recruitment and retention. I have my own personal beliefs on what I feel is fair and right in the world. What I need is yours. Right now the Members General Assembly believe that the current retirement and compensation package offered to state and local employees is not sufficient to meet the needs of the future . They believe a change is needed to attract and retain qualified people. They believe that a good retirement plan is not as important to the new generation of employee. They come to this conclusion because the employees surveyed across the commonwealth from all of the agencies listed told them so in an interview or a survey.
One of the focal points in the new structure would be higher pay for new employees and to have the new employees pay into their own retirement system. The selling point for the General Assembly to the public on this issue is the cost savings to the state by making employees work longer, reducing the multiplier used to calculate the retirement benefit and increasing the years to calculate the average compensation. Currently the average is based on the highest 36 months of salary. Proposed legislation would change the calculation to the average of the highest 60 months of salary.

My question is if this is to save money in the budget now, where are you going to get the money for the raises to offset what the employee is now required to pay into their retirement? Are you ready for the Shell game? The state would take the money that it currently pays into the employee’s retirement and tell them that it is a raise, but you as a new employee now have to pay it toward your retirement.

Brother and Sisters I really could go on and on about these proposals, but I need you to tell me what you think. If I am crazy and the only one that believes that we should not throw the kids under the bus then call me crazy. I believe that sometimes you have to do things for people that they do not realize you are doing. When you were hired as a police officer some of you looked into the retirement and compensation benefits. Others just wanted to be police officers and did not care at the time they took the job about retirement. As you aged you started to pay attention to things such as health care costs, college tuition, paying a mortgage and all the bills associated with providing a home. Like me you learned the value of a dollar and how hard it is to earn it. As a police officer you put your life on the line and bury your friends as a stark reminder to the dangers of life. With all these things said you also started to look at what you would do when you retire. I hope that some of you realized that those who came before you fought hard to put in place those benefits that you had not paid too much attention to. If you think that the state should reduce long term retirement benefits for new employees let me know. If you think that they should make new employees pay into their own retirement let me know. If you think that new employees will place more value on higher pay now and lower retirement later let me know. If you think that we should throw the new generation of public safety and civilian employees under the bus to keep our own retirement benefits in place let me know. Last but not least, if you think that we should not change any of the benefits that we had to fight so hard to attain over the years let the General Assembly, the Governor, Lt. Governor and the Attorney General know.  They can be reached via government Email.

If you participated in the JLARC study let me know please. Respond via Email and if you want me to call you send me your telephone number and I will try to call you back in a timely fashion.

Email: THELAWMANII@verizon.net

Fraternally,

Kevin P. Carroll
Legislative Chairman
Sgt. at Arms

Fraternal Order of Police of Virginia

 

 

The FOP Legislative Committee will be monitoring all bills for the 2010 session. If you have any thoughts, ideas, etc, for this session, please contact the Legislative Chair, Kevin Carroll. His contact info is listed below.

ALSO--- If any local lodge has made any local endorsements, please notifiy the State Lodge office so that they may be shared with all of our members.