Reasons for NO on the Proposed Police Contract

We received the following article from a member and former executive board member of the Albuquerque Police Officer's Association. In it, Mr. Maurer offers his reasons why members should vote against the proposed contract.

While we know this blog is widely read by APD officers and citizens alike we also know it is read by APD brass and top city administrators. For those department and city leaders that even for a minute think of harming Mr. Maurer in any way for his statements herein, you are on notice that not only is he expressing his opinion as a private citizen, but also as a member of a recognized labor organization. Despite that, we know this administration has history of unlawful retaliation against its employees who are outspoken and critical of the city and the department. For that we have this warning and notice:

If Mr. Maurer incurs any harm, disadvantage, encumbrance, or is otherwise hindered by actions of APD brass or city personnel we will assist Mr. Maurer in every way possible to ensure he realizes relief from those actions and that those parties who harmed him are personally held liable. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are liberties we hold dear as Americans and if certain city personnel choose inflict any such anti-American actions on Mr. Maurer we will do everything we can to hold those persons accountable in a court of law.

Vote NO on the APOA Contract

There are many reasons not to vote for the new contract however one of the most obvious ones is the 4.5 hours of your vacation time. This demand by the city is indicative of the way the city administration views its employees (not just 34’s but all employees). The administration has no desire to foster good employee management relations. The city’s top priority is not to work with us to protect and serve or provide city services but to use us to accomplish their goals.

I have no problem with authority or a structure of authority. That is the only way to accomplish a task or multitude of tasks when dealing with such a large number of employees.  In order to be successful, efficient, and effective authority needs to work with its employees not against them. Three years of ignoring the APOA’s contract and the city’s obligation to honor that contract is not indicative of a willingness to work with employees. The city has a responsibility to deal with our initial contract before any other contractual changes should be considered.

Some items of note:

1.      Over 56 changes, deletions, or modifications to existing contract provisions

2.      There is no pay scale in the contract except for PTU Officers

3.      The family insurance benefit is not included in the wording of the new agreement

4.   The Take Home Car plan excludes anyone hired after 07/01/2011 and anyone living  outside of Bernalillo County

5.      4.5 hours of donated leave time (no provision for monitoring this fund or what happens if this amount of funding is to little or not enough, what happens if you only work 6 months for APD when payment is due, what if you retire in midyear do you get half of this time back, etc. It will cost more to monitor this fund that to pay the APOA president 40 hours and the vice president 20 hours a week )

6.      Why the rush to have a contact now, why can’t the membership have more than a few days to review and digest this proposal

7.      While voting to ratify this proposal does not negate our current breach of contract law suit it most certainly will effect it

8.      The city failed to honor the last contract what makes this one binding

The list goes on and on. The point is that much more than a very small increase of pay is at stake here, APD’s future is on the line. How we react will determine how future contracts will be negotiated and adhered to. I am not against the administration or the city. I am for what is right, fair and best for the Albuquerque Police Department and the citizens of Albuquerque.

Brian Maurer

We thank Mr. Maurer for stepping up and presenting reasonable arguments against this proposed contract. If there are persons interested in countering Mr. Maurer's assessment, by all means email us your article and we will give you equal access.

 

Nature At Play: Mayor Berry's Mess

The following letter by retired APD sergeant Dan Klein was published in yesterday's Albuquerque Journal. We at the Eye applaud Sgt. Klein for refusing to remain silent like so many others do and speaking out against the failed policies of RJ Berry and Rob Perry. Policies that have brought the state's largest police department to it's knees.  Here's his letter as printed:

Mayor Richard Berry believes the reason the Albuquerque Police Department is having trouble recruiting/retaining officers is because of changes to the PERA retirement plan. He stated he will lobby the Legislature to enact a deferred retirement option plan (DROP). This will only harm the entire state, as the work done in 2013 to make PERA solvent would be compromised by such a plan.

Changes to PERA did not create the staffing crisis at APD; Berry’s policies have. 

There are four reasons why APD cannot recruit/retain officers. 

First, Berry ended the veteran officer retention program. This in-house Albuquerque program provided a bonus for officers who delayed their retirement. A total of 129 officers delayed their retirement when this program was in effect, swelling the ranks of senior officers at APD to almost 1,200. There may be a plan in the works to bring back a retention program, but it will be too late to stop retirements slated for the end of 2013. Why didn’t Berry act months ago to stop these dozens of officers from retiring on Dec. 31? 

Second is the change in hiring requirements that Berry imposed. APD applicants must have either 60 college hours or three years active military. This is not a “raising of standards” as Berry has stated. This only reduced our hiring pool to a puddle. This is why APD graduates fewer than 20 officers from the academy each year. This standard allows a 21-year-old with no work history, who lived at home, who has $30,000 in student loan debt, a 2.0 GPA, a majority of classes in “food arts” and only 60 hours to show for four years of college to apply with APD. This policy excludes the 30-year-old, who worked since 18 years old, owns a home, has no debt and has maturity through life experience.

APD must allow for an applicant who has maturity, but does not have college or military experience, to apply. These citizens make good police officers. 

Third, the contract impasse of the last four years has ruined morale. Finally there is a contract offer, but any city offer that does not recognize police officers as being just as important as Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry will probably go down to defeat. Handing Perry a 22 percent pay raise and offering the police 1 percent will not get a contract ratified by the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, and will lead to a further erosion of morale and officers leaving. 

Fourth, the Department of Justice investigation has embarrassed Albuquerque on a national level.

Who wants to work for a department that has had so much scandal with no accountability? From the adultery “nature at play” comments made by the past chief to the millions in court judgments, something is wrong at the top of APD. This can be fixed by Berry refocusing accountability at all levels, but most importantly in the command staff. A good place to start will be for Berry to order a full investigation into why ex-APD officer Nelson Begay (arrested on child pornography charges) was able to pass all levels of the APD recruiting process – including polygraph, background and psychological testing – to become an APD officer. 

Is there a flaw in APD’s recruiting standards? Who is accountable for Begay being hired? We will not know unless a full review is ordered by Berry. I urge Berry to drop the DROP plan. Berry owns APD’s current mess; it is time for him to take responsibility and start fixing it in Albuquerque, not in Santa Fe. APD’s problems and solutions start and stop at Berry’s desk. Passing the buck to the Legislature is not the type of leadership Albuquerque needs.

As we've seen with the proposed police contract, it seems the Berry Administration has no interest in fixing this mess.

Nature at Play: Apoa/City Contract

The last contract between the city's police officers and the city was set to expire on June 30, 2011. But of course this contract was breached by mayor RJ Berry in January 2010 and ever since then officers have been stuck at $25.18/hour when as of today they should at least be at $28/hour. That's 11.2% higher than they are now. So today, the proposed replacement for that breached contract was posted at all the substations. And along with it was a highlight sheet and a bizarre recommendation by the APOA to ratify a contract that puts its members in worse position than where folks are today.

So, as you gaze and look at the above "highlights" consider the following that is not included and factor into this agreement if the membership decides to accept it:

* The Part-Time Program is deleted
* CSA have increased duties including law enforcement activities
* Specialized unit positions do not have to be circularized if the position is for "effective operation of the department"
* The agreement is silent on any of the many changes coming down involving the Police Oversight Commission
*The Home Ownership Payment Program is deleted
* The Lateral Officer Program incentive is deleted
* The Student Loan Forgiveness Program is deleted
* The College Training Program is deleted
* Hires after 7/1/11 that do not live in the city limits of Albuquerque do not get a take home car
* The Officer Retention Program is significantly scaled back from what it was.

Our take on this is it is NOT an investment in the officers who make sacrifices for the city every day. The city asks a lot from it officers, and if this is the product of three years of negotiations, and nearly $100,000 in fees, then it is all too obvious who is in a position of control. 4-10s will never come back. Anything written under a "MOU" is rarely worth the paper it's printed on. And let's be real, any increase in pay came only recently and at the promotion of city council, not the Berry Administration. And why the rush? Weren't we all waiting for yet another UNM pay study?

While the leadership of the APOA, who have helped lead this once great department into the mess that it's in, have endorsed this agreement, we suggest you read the details for yourself and make your own decision. We can say for certain, you will not be in a better place than you are now if you ratify this proposed agreement.

But who knows, Rob Perry got a $33,000 raise, the PTC officers get a $3 raise, so maybe $.39 cents is all the value that our city's police officers hold for themselves.

Nature at Play: APD Academy Style

Yeah, our Eyes tell us while your eyes are closed other things are open...

Joe Wolf was selected as APD's first civilian director of the APD Academy back July 2012. Schultz and Berry's idea was to bring a civilian with federal law enforcement training experience to help "soften" APD's basic and advanced police training. He said, “tactically it makes sense to soften (their) approach.”  That meant no yelling at cadets, no D &C, no stress days, no hazing, no hell night, but lots of academics. In other words, it was an experience so unrelated to policing it must be designed to give the graduates an experience in shock and awe when they left the wading pool and went to the streets of Albuquerque. Because we all know the streets of Albuquerque are far from being stress free and safe. This has to be the idea right?

Actually, it's been a complete failure. Because for over a year, our Eyes tell us barely thirty cadets have graduated and joined the ranks of APD. Now, with a current class just a few months into their six month training, they have all but lost half the class to attrition. Many of our Eyes have speculated that perhaps there is something else going on and it has more to do with the caliber of cadets and less to do with the type of training. Or perhaps something else is going on. Maybe some sort of hook up?

Well, it seems if Director Wolf is not exactly minding his house. Well, we mean, while he is supposed to minding his training program and the cadets, he's actually more interested in APD's version of "internal affairs." Or as the disgraced former chief of APD, Ray Schultz called it, APD's secret "Nature at Play" division.

Our Eyes tell us, and we have confirmed that Director Wolf's domestic matters are in chaos as he is being sued for divorce by his spouse as stated in the 2nd District Court's docket. And that the "Nature at Play" tac-plans involved none other than an APD officer. Not that this could get any worse, but the suspected employee is one of the department's polygraphers.

So is this really the state of APD's training academy? It's director is having an affair with one of his department's lie detectors?

When Wolf came here, he stated he wanted to change APD's academy. He said, "We like to think of it now as more of a university campus than a boot camp.” Well it seems he sure did that, and immerse himself in with the co-ed activities....

APOA & IAFF 244: Why the Difference?

In a recent post, a blogger asked the following question:

"...why is it the IAFF is strong whereas the APOA is weak?" 

As we've reported on numerous occasions, the APOA has a history that speaks for itself. Over the last fifteen or so years our Eyes tell us its been led by:

Francisco Nogales
Billy Pounders
Marie "Sisi" Saens Miranda
Paul Pacheco
Alex Marentes
Jeff Remington
Lawrence Torres
Pete Dwyer
Ron Olivas
Joey Sigala
Greg Weber
Stephanie Lopez

Over about that same period of time the IAFF 244 has been led by:

John Garcia
Diego Arencon

And of the APOA's list, many of those presidents have resigned, retired, or were voted out in disgrace whereas it seems the IAFF either keeps things hush or they simply haven't had the endless issues their public safety cohort has had.

Let us remind you folks that a stable and unified organization is a much greater force to deal with than one that is fragmented. Given that APD has about 200 more sworn employees than AFD, why is it there simply no engagement by officers unlike AFD? A the public safety debate this past September, about 5 members of the APOA showed up we are told whereas over 80 from the IAFF were in attendance. With so many more members, one would naturally think APOA would dwarf the IAFF. But they don't. And they haven't for years.

And while the IAFF was out marching around on election day, the only APOA personnel out an about were those officers on duty assigned to watch the IAFF. Think about the irony in that!

Some of our posters have said that in order for the police union to be strong, people need to show up. We here at the Eye think that analysis is flawed. If a union is strong, members will show up. A union's strength comes from its members, but the members are led and inspired by their leader. The membership does not make the leader. So while it's noble to encourage people to attend, and don't get us wrong as they should, we would encourage to accept that lack of participation is a symptom of a greater issue affecting the APOA. The APOA as an entity seems to need true leadership and not people that simply follow the leadership model shown by the 5th Floor.  Schultz would have us believe that his failure as APD's chief is because of all those problematic employees when in fact they are a symptom of his failures.

Perhaps the APOA leadership should get together with the leadership of the IAFF and figure out what to do.

That is unless they find it acceptable to take a 2.5% boost in pay as a gesture against a nearly 8% pay cut while the city's CAO takes a 33% raise. That is unless they are ok seeing the department's size dwindle to what it was in 1992.

That is unless they are ok with their membership being, as our Eyes tell us, utterly terrified to do anything contrary to the wishes of Banks or Berry because they know nothing will stop the retaliation....

Both unions have not only a duty to their membership, but a duty to providing the best possible public safety services to the citizens they serve. While it is clear that ever since Torrez was the APOA president, their priority has been to serve the mayor and the chief, maybe now is the time to put the citizens and your officers first and leave Banks and Berry to their own demise.

....Now Breen Goes Too...

And with that, AFD's chief, James Breen gave notice to his department's employees. While there seemed to be a bit of reluctance in his letter, for better or worse, Breen provided a laundry list of things he's helped AFD accomplish during his tenure as chief. One of our Eyes offered this comment for Chief Breen:

"I am glad to see Chief Breen retire. It will soon be obvious to the rank and file that the next Chief will be just as bad. Proving that Mayor Berry and CAO Perry don't care about a good leaders reputation. They will continue to destroy Firefighter and Paramedic morale. Hopefully the next Chief will have the courage and integrity to support ABQ's Bravest Men and Women of the fire department!"

Despite whatever criticisms folks have regarding Breen, one thing that caught our Eye was a comment from somebody within APD:

"I couldn't help but notice Breen at least had the integrity and honesty to give notice to his employees unlike our former chief. With Schultz, he just sent a letter with homemade letterhead to his boss Rob Perry. He didn't talk much about what's gone on with APD under his "Leadership." And he obviously didn't talk about all the failures--especially with the DOJ here in the department's living room. I hear talk that Breen was pushed out. Well I think when you compare these two letters it's totally obvious Schultz was kicked out. Eye can you post a copy for us to see side by side?"

Of course we can....

Hmmmm........

Who's Watching the Watchers Watch?

In recent weeks our Eyes tell us that APD's Real Time Crime Center has been under major scrutiny because of the disaster involving the Christopher Chase shooting.

You see, as we all know, the RTCC was recently ousted APD chief Ray Schultz's brainchild on his unfinished list of things to do with APD. And while the merits of such a centralized information gathering and monitoring unit are debatable, we do know that a former beat journalist from a failing local newspaper is low on the list of qualified candidates. Yet give the current director's lack of experience, APD continues to present TJ Wilham as the maestro of how the RTCC gets things done.  Or not get things done. Here below is a pic from an APD presentation boasting about the RTCC and Wilham's public leadership role before a meeting of police chiefs and managers earlier this year:

I think we'll let the bullet points concerning TJ Wilham speak for themselves. "High energy" "Creative" "Savvy" In this presentation, APD's personnel crisis was of course put on full parade. After all, if there were plenty of officers in the field there really wouldn't be a justification for the RTCC:

So what does this all have to do with the Chris Chase incident? You see in many ways it was the tragic result of APD's near total mismanagement. Here you personnel and funding being poured into a unit that is supposed to be for the immediate benefit of patrol officers. Much has been pitched about the RTCC increasing patrol officer's "situational awareness." But none of this matters when you have somebody who has more experience in violating officers and citizens rights than law enforcement as is the case with Wilham. But hey, when you "know how to work the system" and are politically connected, what does one need qualifications for?

One last thing, an image was sent to us that is very revealing about the RTCC's failures. You see the blue dot in the picture below? That is an APD sergeant. You see, our Eyes tell us that for sometime now the actual locations of patrol sergeants and field personnel have been monitored by the RTCC. So while our officers are out watching the streets, Wilham-Banks-Willoughby have been watching you. Maybe it's time APD and Berry step up and show us how many officers were deployed in the field on the day Chase went on his tragic rampage, and where they were...