NPU Family,
First, I want to take a moment to express my feelings about the tragic death of our brother from North Las Vegas Police Department. Our entire NPU family is saddened by the loss of one of our brothers. This terrible incident sheds light on the dangers that we face on a day-to-day basis. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.
As the Legislative session begins, we will provide as much updated information regarding bills that impact law enforcement, mostly bills that impact our membership, and many others that have some sort of significance. Please keep an eye on our social media pages as well, as that is probably the quickest way to get information out. Several of you have expressed interest in reaching out to legislators when it comes time to support or oppose a bill. As those specific bills come up, I will provide an email with the bill number for you and where to send your comments to. You can view our list of bills we are watching by clicking here and logging into the website Member Area. The list is about ½ way down the page. This is our preliminary list but there will be more.
For the last 6+ months, I have been meeting and speaking with many Senators and Assemblymembers regarding our issues and concerns. My efforts have and will continue until the end of the session in early June. Rest assured, they know the issues and are getting plenty of information from me, as well as other unions/associations that we work hand in hand with. During the first week of session, I have already had meetings with Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno (Chairperson-House Ways and Means), Assemblyman PK O’Neill and Senator Robin Titus (Minority Leader). NPU also co-hosted a Meet and Greet in Carson City which several key legislators attended. NPU Board members, Andy Granata (Chairman-Supervisors group), John Galacia (Vice Chair-Supervisors group), Ian Knight (Vice Chair-Supervisors group), James Mortimore (NPU Vice President), and I all attended the event alongside Board members from FOP (Corrections) and NPOA (CATII).
CBA negotiations started February 10th and run all week. That is for both Units G (line level) and Unit L (Supervisors). We already know that these negotiations will be contentious and difficult, as years past have shown that. Both negotiation teams are ready and fully prepared to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT if need be. Throughout the negotiation process, we will keep our goals in the forefront. Pay and benefits are of the upmost priority. Just to be clear, we are not able to share information regarding contract negotiations as they take place, but we are utilizing all the ideas and suggestions membership submitted in the survey we sent out late last year.
As mentioned, I spent the better part of the week at the Legislative building talking to numerous politicians as well as other lobbyists from outside law enforcement agencies. We all have one goal in mind. The #1 priority is pay and benefits and to figure out a cure for the PERS contribution rate hike. I am hearing rumors and grumblings again that NPU’s focus is NHP. As I have stated numerous times in the past, this is simply not true. I think these rumors and speculation come from the media posts and interviews that I have done over the last several weeks. The media reaches out to me and asks me specific questions about road coverage and the Highway Patrol. We continue to advocate for ALL departments and divisions. One of our consistent discussions and advocacy has been securing an overtime budget for P&P and Investigation Divisions. I discussed this with the Governor directly as well.
As I have discussed in previous emails, we are developing an app for your phones that will be able to deliver updates even quicker. I am hopeful we can get this up and running sooner than later so we can update you on ongoing legislative matters.
Again, this year, NPU will be sponsoring two tables at the Northern NV Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) Evening in Blue event on April 12th at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno. NPU will be selling these tickets to members for $100 per ticket. If interested, please email rpowell@nvpolice.org to arrange payment.
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have and concerns, comments, input, ideas, etc…. If there is a rumor…..let me know. I will address it directly.
Stay safe,
Dan
