National Trustee Report
National Trustee Report
National Board of Directors Meeting
Salt Lake City September 8th & 9th 2006
The F.O.P. scored a major legislative victory
when the Senate passed H.R. 4, the "Pension Protection Act of 2006," by a 93-5
vote. This came after the House approved the bill 279-130 last week. The bill
eliminates the Deferred Retirement Option Plans (DROP) provision, and includes
the "Healthcare Enhancement for Local Public Safety (HELPS) Retirees Act," both
of which the F.O.P. had been lobbying for quite some time now.
"The bill is a major victory for our officers, many of whom are hurt
by the DROP provision and have trouble affording decent health insurance,"
National President Chuck Canterbury stated. "Many of our officers are forced to
retire earlier than the rest of the general population and are unfairly
penalized because of this. This bill will help end this and save many of our
officers a great deal of money."
The DROP provision, which is included in section 828 of H.R. 4, would
eliminate the ten percent (10%) early withdrawal penalty from a government
defined benefit plan for public safety officers participating in Deferred
Retirement Option Plans (DROP). Under current law, a law enforcement officer who
leaves active service before the age of 55 and opts to receive a lump-sum
payment under DROP before the age of 59 ½ is subject to an early withdrawal
penalty of ten percent (10%).
The HELPS provision, which is included in Section 845 of H.R. 4, would
provide a modest tax benefit to help retired public safety officers afford
health insurance by allowing the use, on a pretax basis, of up to $3,000
annually from their pension funds (including defined benefit plans and defined
contribution plans) to pay for premiums on health care and long-term care
insurance.
Lodges will now be able to access their own lodge records via, www.fop.net , the new Grand Lodge Web Page. Lodge Secretaries will now be able to make any paperless changes to their respective lodge rosters, and do any paperwork necessary over the net. Lodge Presidents will now be able to access their lodge records on a read only basis. If you have any problems accessing your lodge, or have any questions, please contact the Grand Lodge at 1-800-451-2711.
The Legal Defense Plan is the most solid of any plan like it in the country, currently with over 20,000 participants. The plan has over 4 million dollars in its account, with almost 4 million dollars being paid out in attorney fees each year. What makes this plan so special is that the members of the FOP own this plan. There are almost no administrative costs for running the plan and there hasn’t been an increase in cost to the FOP members for participating in the plan since 2003.
Benefits are getting better and the costs to the plan will probably soon go down. The Legal Defense Committee is also discussing allowing all off duty actions to be covered, not just Duty or Duty related as the plan now stands. More on this as it becomes available.
Active Members already participating in the plan have been given an added benefit of the HR-218 coverage. Members wishing this coverage alone, only pay $50.00 a year. Information on this has already been sent out, but you can also read about it on the Idaho FOP web page, www.idahofop.com , click on Legal Defense, and then click on Hylant Group.
Comparing the FOP Legal Defense Plan to its two most common rivals, PROAC & Plea.
PROAC is broke with a deficit of 4 million dollars.
PLEA paid out $300,000.00 last year in legal claims, and paid over $500,000.00 in administrative costs.
The FOP Legal Defense Plan has seen over 7500 cases, paying out over 15 million dollars since its inception. The average legal bill in 1996 when the plan started was $1,800.00. Today the average legal bill submitted to the FOP Plan is over $4,000.00. The largest claim paid by the FOP Legal Plan was over $100,000.00, paid out to an officer who was accused of murder in an on duty justified shooting. You can see this Officers testimonial on the Idaho FOP web page at the above links.
Another caution was put out on FOP members selling FOP merchandise on E-Bay. Members caught selling anything with the FOP emblem on it to non members has been subject to being expelled from the order. Many types of criminals around the country have been using the FOP symbol as a tool in their criminal wrong doings. This is an officer safety issue that the FOP takes seriously. A trademark agreement form will soon be circulated to all local lodges.
The Grand Lodge Board of Directors voted to drop Idaho Lodges, 12, 17 & 18 from the Grand Lodge Rolls for failure to pay their respective per-capita dues.
The National Fraternal Order of Police, in partnership with ICMA-RC, has created the Blue Line 457 Plan. This is an FOP-sponsored deferred compensation program provided exclusively to Fraternal Order of Police members. The Blue Line 457 Plan provides police officers an easy tax-deferred way to save for retirement. To find out more, please contact ICMA-RC at 1-866-747-NFOP (747-6367), or visit the web site at www.BlueLine457.org. During the first year this plan is implemented, the local lodge will get back 5 points of the total money in that plan. After the first year, the Grand Lodge will get the 5 points for the remainder of time the plan stays in effect.
The National Political Action Committee (PAC) fund only has $3,800.00 in its account. Only members of the FOP can contribute to this very important fund. $1, yes $1 per member into the fund would produce over $324,000.00 to the PAC. Please if you can contribute to the National PAC, do so generously. You can find the necessary information and contribution form on our web page, www.idahofop.com , and click on Political Action Committee link, and then click on PAC contribution forms.
The Idaho State Lodge is still working with the National Compliance Committee to keep us in compliance with National rules. After we have accomplished this, the Idaho State Lodge will be asking each local lodge to be in compliance with National Rules.
Each lodge will be asked by The Compliance Committee to retrieve from each local lodge a list of the following.
1. Copy of Current Lodge Officer Roster
2. Copy of Lodge Incorporation Papers
3. Copy of Federal EIN Number
4. Proof of Liability Fidelity Insurance
5. IRS Documents
6. Independent Financial Review
7. Copy of Voucher & Supporting Documents
8. Lodge Income Log
9. Expenses Document
10. Justification of Expenditures
11. Fundraising Document
12. Copy of Board Meeting Minutes
13. Copy of Current Constitution & By-Laws
14. Copy of Financial Report to Membership
15. Trademark Agreement with State Lodge
If each local lodge can look at the above list and start compiling what is needed, then when it is requested by the committee you will be ready to respond in a timely fashion.
More information on this will be sent to each local lodge soon.
The Idaho State Lodge Constitution & By-Laws passed at our last Biennial Conference, were voted on and accepted by the National Board of Directors on September 9th.
The National Fraternal of Police received a $375,000.00 grant to study the needs of families of First Responders during catastrophic events. You can keep track of this study on the Grand Lodge web page, accessing it though the Idaho FOP web page.
The FOP Foundation is up and running. This Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) charitable foundation. All local lodges will be able to apply for monies used for donations to your local charitable organizations. The National FOP is requesting donations for the foundation.
The National Labor Services Committee will soon be implementing a National Labor Counsel for all local lodges to use. This will be especially helpful to those lodges whose departments have a collective bargaining contract with their local municipalities. Other FOP Local Lodges will also be able to use the Labor Counsel as needed.
Services will include:
1. Obtaining right to serve as Bargaining Agent
a. Organizing & Representation
i. Decertification/Certifying
ii. Initiative petitions
2. Contract Negotiations
a. Research
b. Economics
i. Health care coverage advice and evaluation
ii. Pension advice and evaluation
iii. Financial Analysis
c. Training
d. Sitting at table
e. Ratification
3. Contract Administration
a. Grievance resolution
b. Arbitration/mediation services
c. Expert services
d. Meet and confers (changes to contract or reopeners)
4. Legislative
a. Collective Bargaining
b. Drafting & Creating
c. Lobbying
d. Research
e. Enhancing current laws
f. Interpreting existing laws
g. PAC’s
5. Legal (include cost of NFOP legal defense)
6. Research
a. Case Law Research
b. Comparables
c. Local and state laws
d. Other contracts
7. Other
a. Additional services requested
b. Labor management issues such as:
i. Grants
ii. Officer Safety
iii. Quality of life issues
Services shall be sold only to:
i. Units of law enforcement officers, the majority of whom are FOP members
ii. Non-Sworn law enforcement agency personnel who are employed by an agency where the FOP is the bargaining agent.
The cost for service shall be negotiated with the lodge or labor entity. The cost shall be based on the cost to the NFOP to deliver that service or group of services.
The National Board of Directors voted and approved in supporting this new venture and also voted to add more personnel to run the program as needed.
The Labor Services Committee believes that this expanded program will become self sustaining within 3 – 5 years. Until such time the NFOP will need to provide a financial subsidy. This method was used by most of the successful labor councils around the country when the first started.
An 87 page Special Report from the Labor Services Committee can be found on the Idaho FOP web page under the Labor Services link.
Both the Utah State Lodge and the Massachusetts State Lodge are competing for the 2011 National Conference. Utah wants to host the conference in Salt Lake City & Massachusetts was to host it in Boston. This will be decided at the National Conference held next year in Louisville Kentucky.
This concludes my report. If you have any questions or comments, feel free in contacting me any time.
Fraternally
Brad Landes
National Trustee
Idaho State Fraternal Order of Police.