Many people have been asking me what is going on with meet and confer at DPS and at the national level. 

At DPS it appears there will not be another employee representative election under the current law which is in place.  Our competitor declined to have another vote for reasons that weren’t made available to our employees.  The FOP is a staunch supporter of Meet and Confer and would welcome another chance at having a valid election.

People ask me who had the most votes of the last election.  The ballots weren’t opened due to there being 24 votes short of a valid number returned.  Therefore, people can only speculate who would have won.

Most of you are not aware that a competing Police organization attempted to have legislation enacted last legislative session which would have allowed the other organization place a technical element in the law to intended to restrict the FOP's structure to represent civilian DPS employees.  Thankfully, this legislation was put to rest.  Some people outside of the FOP have spread untruths that the FOP doesn’t represent civilians.  This is an outright lie.  The FOP represents thousands of civilian employees across the country.

During this legislative session in Arizona there may be some changes to current laws affecting State of Arizona employees meet and confer rights.

On the national level, the Grand Lodge of the FOP is at the forefront of federal legislation to make collective bargaining a right for all Police Officers. Congressional leadership promised that the law will move this session.  Depending on the US Senate’s actions in 2008, hopefully this legislation will  become law.

Fraternally,

John Ortolano, President
AZ FOP Lodge 32