NPU Family….
Well, that’s a wrap! The 83rd Legislative Session has concluded, and there is certainly a lot to unpack. Let’s get the important part that is weighing on everyone’s mind out of the way first— the collective bargaining agreements (CBA) for both Unit G and Unit L. Below is a summary of what the Legislature passed in the final hours of the session which is now sitting with the Governor:
Unit G (Line level):
- 1% COLA starting July 1, 2025
- 1% COLA starting July 1, 2026
- Education payments (same as our current contract) Added: 2% for Intermediate POST cert and 2% Advanced POST certificate
- If you qualify for both, POST Intermediate and Advanced certificates can be compounded for a total of 4% increase
- Uniform/equipment allowance (same as current contract)
- Boot Allowance (same as current contract)
- Special Pay adjustments (same as current contract)
- Line of Duty Death (same as current contract) ADDED-100% pay out of accrued sick leave to beneficiary
- $1,000 Retention Bonuses for each fiscal year ($250 quarterly payout)
Unit L (Supervisors): mirrors Unit G, except for the following:
- Education payments
- Associate’s degree $600/year
- Bachelor’s degree $1,200/year
- NV POST Executive Certificate $1,500/year
- Special Pay Adjustments max 5% (Unit Coordinator or unit supervisor)
- Bilingual
- Critical Incident Response Team (CIT)
- Field Training Officer
- Motors Officer
- K9 Officer
A few Notes/Comments about the CBA:
- IMPORTANT: To get your Intermediate or Advanced certificates before July 1, you must begin the process with your specific department or division’s administrative assistant ASAP. This takes time. The Admin will request official transcripts if you claim to have any college credits, associates, or bachelor’s degree so have that ready for them. Reach out to your union representative or board member if you have any questions
- NPU is still in disagreement with the State/Labor Relations Unit about Bilingual pay and “personal leave day.” We are awaiting arbitration dates for both of these active grievances. However, we are trying to get these 2 resolved prior to arbitration. Arbitration can go either way and is costly. We will work to resolve these grievances in an effort to minimize potential loss.
Other legislative bills that are important to NPU:
AB356 – This, hopefully, is the most important piece of legislation that pertains to State employees, especially NPU membership. This bill changes the timelines for collective bargaining. CBA negotiations can now begin on April 1st of the year prior to the Legislative session. Bargaining units can start negotiating compensation at the beginning and should be able to get through the entire bargaining process, including arbitration (if needed) prior to the Governor’s recommended budget being completed. This should allow the Governor to include negotiated CBAs into the Governor’s recommended budget given to the Legislature prior to the beginning of the session. As it stands now, these CBAs are not submitted or included in the Governor’s budget because they are finalized during the legislative session.
AB93 – This is the Heart Lung bill. The bill revises and expands the definition of Nevada police officers and expands certain benefits. Effective January 1, 2026, Capitol Police Officers will be included in this important program. NPU worked on this bill with the legislators to ensure passage.
Legislative Session Reflections
Let me take a few moments to reflect on this legislative session. Before the session started in February, we got word that the PERS contribution was going up significantly, but it came as a total shock when they made the announcement of the 8.7% increase. If you are on the “employee/employer pay,” your PERS contribution is going up 4.35% (total of 8.7% split by both employee and employer). If you are on the “employer only,” your hourly rate will be reflected by the PERS increase. This will slightly lower your hourly rate of pay.
This completely changed our approach to our legislative agenda. We transitioned to concentrating on figuring out ways to help offset the potential decrease in take home pay. I started meeting with legislators and the Governor towards the end of the year to discuss our compensation issues.
We had originally wanted to introduce a “pay parity” bill, but had difficulty finding a legislator to sponsor it. We explored other alternatives such as a Police/Fire PERS bill much like the PERS bill that was vetoed by the Governor last session. We approached several legislators to test the waters to see if there was any appetite for this type of bill and unfortunately there was not. Again, we had to shift our focus to something other than getting changes legislatively. This meant one thing…..CBA negotiations. Several challenges arose and potential roadblocks were in our way. #1 the State’s history of negotiating tactics. #2 the State’s poor economic outlook and forecast. And #3……#1 and #2 combined!
Collective Bargaining Recap
While a bit lengthy, I wanted to provide a recap of what occurred during collective bargaining. We faced new challenges this time and every day of negotiations was a challenge. The Labor Relations Unit (LRU) had new leadership. Bachera Washington was appointed Administrator for the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM) and was tasked with being the Chief Negotiator for the State. From Day 1, the LRU established their intention to rewrite the ENTIRE CBA for Unit G, stating they were standardizing all the CBAs. As you would expect, our team had zero interest in rewriting our entire CBA and we voiced our position. We have theories on why the LRU chose to introduce changes to all CBA articles but let’s not get into the weeds on this.
We met with opposition for the new bargaining Unit L (Supervisors). Go figure! While the LRU maintained that Unit L “had no existing contract to work from” we were finally able to use much of the language in the Unit G CBA to create the framework for Unit L. You’ll have to trust that the entire negotiating process for both units was exhausting both mentally and emotionally. After the better part of almost 2 months, we were able to come to TAs (tentative agreements) on all articles from both Unit G and L except for the compensation articles.
For compensation, the State’s proposed offer was “you get what the legislature gives you!” This, by definition, is NOT negotiating. After receiving this proposal, we knew both Units were headed to arbitration. As outlined in previous emails, we once again had to change course on what we originally proposed for compensation, to what would be a winning proposal during an arbitration hearing. It’s important to remember during arbitration, the arbitrator chooses 1 proposal or the other, either our proposal or the State’s proposal would be awarded in its entirety. So again, we had to modify a bit so we could win our case.
Both Unit G and Unit L negotiating teams worked extremely hard and came up with new compensation proposals. NPU’s representatives for Unit G’s arbitration was: Attorney, Alex Velto, and I. Unit L was represented by: Attorney, Paul Cotsonis, and NPU Unit L Vice Chairman, Asa Kulkin. Long story short….WE WON both cases and the Arbitrator awarded both NPU units a victory. Unfortunately, this was only part of the battle. We still needed to get both CBAs passed by the Board of Examiners (BOE), a bill to fund the CBAs to pass through the Legislature and once these hurdles were cleared, signed by Governor Lombardo to become law, which is where we are now.
The changes and emotions that happened during the last week of the session were a rollercoaster. As soon as we were awarded the arbitration wins, I met with several legislators to express the importance of getting the CBAs funded. The funding bill went from funding the CBAs in their entirety, to having The Assembly Ways and Means Committee removing all the compensation but adding in $2000 retention incentives ($250 quarterly payments). Then a day later, amended compensation was added back into the bill. As I mentioned, at the time of writing this, the funding bill for the CBAs (AB596) is on the Governor’s desk awaiting signature or veto.
I want to take a few moments to acknowledge a few people. First, let me take this opportunity to say thank you to our NPU negotiations team. On the Unit L side led by Andy Granata and flanked by John Galacia, Asa Kulkin, Ian Knight and James Mortimore. These guys nailed it! They built a CBA from the ground up. Secondly, for Unit G negotiating team it was Jennifer Johnson, James Mortimore, Jaimie McGuire (now retired), and me. Please make sure you know how hard this team worked. They put numerous hours into this process, much of it on their own time. Phenomenal team!!!!!!! 3rd…. let’s recognize Reesha Powell, NPU’s Executive Director. Without her, this engine does not work. She is the backbone of this organization and keeps it all running smoothly.
Final Thoughts
Lastly, I want to take this opportunity for my final words of this legislative session. I have never worked so hard in my life. I simply want the best for our membership. Our entire NPU team does. I’ve spoken with and met with countless legislators and cultured many relationships that hopefully work for us throughout the coming years. Many of you have reached out to me in the last few weeks and months during session and told me that my efforts are appreciated. Thank you for the kind words. Admittedly when I got word last week, we were not getting all that was awarded in our arbitration wins, I was devastated. I’ve never felt so deflated and defeated in my life. It was a kick in the ba!$$ and I felt like such a failure. So much time and resources spent on the entire process, only to be stripped away. Nothing we could do. After a few days of teaching Drivers Edge in Las Vegas last weekend, I was able to calm down a bit and refocus. I kept at it with phone calls and text messages to get more information and to express our displeasure in the situation. As I take a look from 20,000 feet above, I can see that this could have been much worse. The end game this session was not as good as we hoped, but not a complete disaster. Thank you all for having trust in me as your President. I’ll continue to make lots of noise and be the squeaky wheel. The fight isn’t over….and we work harder to get us where we need to be.
As always, feel free to call, text or email me with any questions, concerns or comments
Dan
775-781-5859
Dgordon@nvpolice.org
