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HB 980 – FLOOR VOTE DELAYED – SENT BACK TO COMMITTEE – WILL BECOME STUDY
BILL
Despite strong lobbying efforts by many PBA members, it proved to be not
enough to garner enough votes from House members to put HB 980 – Law
Enforcement Officers Discipline Act – to a floor vote.
With assistance of other groups supporting the bill, PBA developed the
following tally of votes: 53 House members said they would vote for the
bill, 17 against, and 50 were either on the fence or would not say how
they would vote.
Without a confirmed 61 votes committed to pass the bill, the bill has
been re-referred back to the House Judiciary I Committee. PBA and our
bill sponsors discussed other options and concluded that we will turn HB
980 into a study bill.
Unlike anything PBA has yet experienced in more than 18 years of state
lobbying, we have never before seen a legislative matter where so many
legislators were simply unwilling to state their position on a bill. The
source of this consternation has been the relentless and emotionally
charged opposition to HB 980 by the North Carolina Sheriff’s
Association, which has surprised and confused many legislators,
especially since the sheriffs are not affected by the bill.
Therefore, PBA began working with our bill sponsors to find a legitimate
opportunity for legitimate concerns about HB 980 to be addressed,
resolved, and brought back before our legislature. A study bill will
provide a process by which the Sheriff’s Association and other groups
who oppose HB 980 can present legitimate information for the proper
opportunity to find resolve.
The good news is that we have moved closer than we have ever been
before. Those PBA members and others who got involved are the reason for
that success.
During this process, we discovered some interesting realities. Reality #
1: Where we were unsuccessful in moving legislators off the fence was in
areas where we do not have active chapters, with active PBA leaders.
Reality # 2: Every single legislator in districts where we have active
chapters and leaders stuck with us despite the enormous pressure put on
the legislators from the bill opponents.
If we are to expect our legislators to vote for the big ticket bills
that are so aggressively opposed by many of your agency heads, we must
have more than strong membership, we must have strong organized chapters
that build strong relationships with our elected officials ALL across
our state.
PBA appreciates Representative Grier Martin and Representative Skip Stam
who worked tirelessly in support of this bill. More on this issue and a
list of our real supporters and actual non supporters will follow in a
future report.
PAYROLL DEDUCTION BILL SENT BACK TO COMMITTEE, PASSED AGAIN, BUT
WEAKENED
In other news, SB 1271 Payroll Deduction for Fire/EMS and law
enforcement officers, which had already passed the Senate was engrossed
and sent to the House when it was pulled and brought back to the Senate
at the request of Senator Tony Rand.
While this move could potentially jeopardize SB 1271 since it had passed
the Senate before the crossover deadline, PBA was assured by Senator
Rand that the action was merely a technical request to accommodate
another group of employees.
Because of our stated concerns and that of the North Carolina
Professional Firefighters and Paramedics and the FOP, SB 1271 was
re-referred to the Senate Judiciary I Committee where it was heard on,
Tuesday, May 22, 2007.
The bill as amended did pass the committee and calendared again before
the full Senate on Wednesday, May 23, 2007. On Wednesday, SB 1271 did
pass second reading by a vote of 33 to 17. However, objection to a third
reading left the bill on the calendar for Thursday, May 24, 2007
(crossover deadline).
Worth noting is the 33-17 vote was down from the 40-8 vote in which SB
1271 passed the Senate the 1st time.
This vote change is reflected by the addition and manner by which
another group inserted itself into the process. While we will address
this at the appropriate time, PBA and our friends with the Professional
Firefighters and Paramedics of North Carolina, and the FOP focused on
getting the bill passed by the crossover deadline and moved forward in
the House.
On Thursday, May 24, 2007, SB 1271 without debate did pass a third
reading but again by a smaller majority, 29-18.
We will keep you posted and will provide more information concerning the
unnecessary and unfortunate chain of events that weakened the bill
support.
On a positive note, an earlier amendment that had been added to the bill
requiring reapplication upon any increase in dues has been removed. This
bill now reflects the original less complicated language which provides
that the member of the association who authorized the deduction can make
the decision to revoke the deduction by written notification.
LOCAL OPTION 25 YEAR BILL
On Monday, May 14, 2007, representatives from the Triangle Chapter of
PBA met with Senator Bob Atwater to discuss details and status of SB
784 – Durham LEOs/ Purchase of Retirement Service.
As you recall, this bill was to be introduced by Senator Jeanne Lucas
before her untimely death. Because of Senator Lucas’ long held respect
and strong support for her law enforcement officers in Durham City and
Durham County, SB 784 was introduced posthumously in her name by Senator
Atwater.
PBA has also spoken to Senator Floyd McKissick who was appointed to
complete Senator Lucas’ term, advises that he supports the bill.
This week, Mayor Bill Bell also reaffirmed to local chapter PBA
representatives that he supports the bill.
GOOD NEWS:
Several other PBA supported bills survived crossover/ PASSED.
HB 1025 – Local Government Retirement /Purchase of Service,
introduced by PBA endorsed Representative Linda Coleman allows for local
government employees to pay retirement cost for probationary employees
which will extend benefits to officers from their first day of
employment. HB 1025 passed the House Pensions and Retirement Committee
on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 and was sent to the House floor pursuant to
Rule 36(b) – (did not go to Appropriations because cost factor is
negligible making bill eligible to go directly to floor.)
On Thursday, May 24, 2007, HB 1025 passed the House 118- 0 and has been
sent to the Senate.
HB 328 – Flexible Payment /Law Enforcement Separation, by
Representative Crawford.
As reported earlier, HB 328 which allows law enforcement retirees to
begin receiving their separation allowance benefit at the actual time of
retirement rather than waiting until the last day of the month in which
the officer retires had passed the House and was sent to the Senate on
April 16, 2007.
On Wednesday, May 23, 2007, HB 328 received a favorable report from the
Senate Pensions and Retirement Committee and was calendared before the
full Senate (again – no fiscal impact) for Thursday, May 24, 2007. At
approximately 11:15 a.m. on May 24th, HB 328 passed the Senate 45-0 and
will be sent back to the House for concurrence.
HB 1414 – Creditable Service / Uniformed Services Employees,
sponsored by Representative Grier Martin
This bill revises the law for creditable service for teachers and state
employees who serve in the armed forces. Armed forces is rewritten to
read uniform service as defined in the Uniformed Services Employment and
Re-employment Rights Act of 1994. The bill also clarifies the rate of
compensation or salary for the state employee upon re-employment with
the state upon leaving the service.
HB 1414 unanimously passed the House 119-0.
HB 1415 Short-Term Disability / Military Service sponsored by
Representative Grier Martin
HB 1415 is another negligible cost pension’s bill that passed the
(House) Pensions and Retirement Committee on May 23, 2007 and calendared
on the crossover deadline May 24, 2007. The bill provided that employees
will not be denied short term disability benefits due to being called to
Military Service. HB 1415 passed the House 117-0 on May 24, 2007 and has
been sent to the Senate.
HB 1623 – Worker’s Compensation / Medical Diagnostic Testing,
introduced by Representative Melanie Goodwin and Bill Faison.
HB 1623 provides for the employee’s doctor to select the health care
provider and diagnostics services center to administer and analyze
diagnostic tests authorized by the doctor instead of the employers or
other entity. This would resolve issues that have harmed other PBA
members that have filed claims with their agencies. The bill passed the
House Judiciary I Committee and on May 10, 2007 calendared before the
House on Wednesday 23, 2007 and passed by a vote of 112-4.
The no votes were Representatives Boyle of Moore County, Lewis of
Harnett County, Samuelson of Mecklenburg County, and Tillis of
Mecklenburg County.
HB 1624 – Frequency of Parole Reviews, sponsored by
Representatives Almond, Barnhart, Glazier and Goodwin.
In 1982, Officer Ray Gilmore of Clayton Police Department was shot in
the face, twice, at point blank range while responding to disturbance at
a drug house.
The thug that murdered Ray accepted a plea offered by the DA to second
degree murder making him at that time eligible for parole after 10
years.
Every year since 1992, PBA has supported families of murdered police
officers like Ray Gilmore before the Parole Commission as these families
are forced to relive these tragedies.
HB 1624 comports with federal law and provides that parole hearings for
convicted murderers are changed from every year to once every five years
(1st degree murder) and every 3 years (for 2nd degree murder). On
Thursday, May 24, 2007, HB 1624 unanimously passed the House 119-0 and
has been sent to the Senate.
BILL TO REPEAL G.S. 95-98 DIES IN COMMITTEE
HB 1583, Restore Contract Rights to State’ Local had been
scheduled several times before the House Judiciary II Committee where it
remained without a committee vote as of Tuesday, May 22, 2007. Without
any chance of being heard before crossover, the bill will die without a
committee vote.
SPECIAL NOTIFICATION TO MEMBERS:
HJR 1986, Honor Officer Howard Plouff, sponsored by
Representative Folwell
On Wednesday, May 30, 2007, HJR 1986 honoring the life of Winston-Salem
Police Sergeant and PBA member Howard Plouff, who was mortally wounded
while assisting fellow officer, will be heard in the House Rules
Committee, Room 421 of the Legislative Office Building at 12:30 p.m.
Officer Plouff is one of eight North Carolina police officers killed in
the line of duty this year.
25-YEAR RETIREMENT BILL(S) UPDATE:
We have received messages from members with concern regarding the status
of the 25-Year Retirement Bills. Apparently there is a rumor that the 25
year retirement bill will die because of the crossover deadline. This
rumor is false.
The 25-Year Retirement bill(s) are APPROPRIATION BILLS and therefore,
ARE NOT SUBJECT TO THE CROSSOVER DEADLINE. The bills DID NOT DIE
on Thursday. All three bills are safe in committee and we will be
concentrating more of our efforts on 25-year retirement in the weeks to
come.
Because some of our other bills were affected and at risk by the
crossover deadline, PBA has been concentrating on those efforts short
term. However, there has been work and progress on our 25 year
retirement bills, which we will share with you as we target these
efforts in the coming weeks.
We would like to thank each and every member who has already been
championing the 25 year retirement bill efforts. Legislators have
advised they are getting lots of letters of support from PBA members
about 25 year retirement.
Have a SAFE and productive holiday. We will keep you posted.
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