New Website is ONLINE!

It's ON, like Donkey Kong!

The new Local #35 website is up and running!

For any of you non-members out there, we feel it will provide a more convenient and attractive way to put out information to our beloved public.

For the Members of the Local, it will provide an easy way to disseminate information, gather the opinions of our membership, etc.

If you're a visitor, please sign our guestbook so we'll know you dropped by.

Members will need to create an account using the online Registration. I'll approve the accounts as they come in.

I went ahead and published it instead of taking the time to put the chrome and finish on it; this thing will always be a work in progress, I'm afraid...

Point your browser to www.iafflocal35.org and sign in!

Alert! Alert!

Attention, members and guests of IAFF Local #35:

Coming Soon! The IAFF35 Website!

That's right, folks. We're migrating to a ProUnion hosted website. This will allow us to display our content better, as well as restrict access to certain portions of the site ("members only").

We will keep you posted!

Tetkoskie

BuzzBQ! This Saturday!

Showtime is HERE, folks. This Saturday! We've got a pretty stout crew for the whole show, and all of your help is appreciated. Lindy has lined us up with some outstanding cost opportunities, so we stand to raise a good deal of funds for the event.

Also of note: at the 2007 BuzzBQ, we had 16 contestants. Word has apparently gotten around, because when I last checked in last week, we had 34 on board for the contest and were expecting more.

Volunteers: pay close attention to the following:

• If you're signed up, I have a t-shirt, staff badge and free pass for you. If at all possible, please try to make arrangements to pick these up from me. I'll have the goods with me at work Friday; if you're on C Crew, swing by after work. If you can't pick them up, I'll get them to you at the gate on the day of the event.
  
• IF YOU DON"T HAVE A STAFF BADGE, getting in after gate time (1100) might present some problems, unless you cough up the entry fee. We'll try to keep someone posted at the gate to hook you up; otherwise, try to get me on my cell phone.
• We will be running a beer tent; margarita tent (which also serves beer); and a Coke tent (also with water and Killer Buzz energy drinks).
  
• For the most part, we didn't fuss with posting assignments this time; we will rotate folks into the following areas: working the gate, beer tent, Buzzaritaville, coke tent, running stuff around, running "parking block" at the submarine area, etc. We will also be assisting with the setup at the beginning and the teardown at the end.
• We have a few folks assigned to work as Fire/EMS crew, manning a standby truck. This is pretty much just a safety precaution (all of the cookers are required to have FX's).
  
• WE NEED PORTABLE RADIOS. I'm talking about the kind you get at Best Buy, etc, with selectable channels. If you have any to spare, bring them.
• If you have any spare "camp chairs" (the portable foldup kind), they would also be useful.
• You're pretty much on your own for parking. It is my understanding that we have permission from the City to park on the median north of the seawall. On the good side, we don't expect to be handling parking. However, we will need to provide someone to keep people from parking at the submarine/salty parrot entrance. That area is not to be used for BuzzBQ parking.

If anyone has any questions, please contact me.

Policeman vs Fireman, 1 thru 7

This is HILARIOUS. Unless you're a cop. Click HERE for details...

Local Meeting!

Local meeting this Monday, usual time and place.

Folks, if you have any questions about contract negotiations, that's the place to ask. We need direction on some of the critical issues, and will be asking for it from the members. We will also be presenting options for the fiscal portion of our contract proposal. Please attend.

Other agenda items:

-- BuzzBQ!
-- Retirees Dinner
-- State Convention 2008
-- Union Officer Expenses
-- New Fire Station project
-- Safety Committee/Minimum Standards Committee

Contract Negotiations / Tax

The information below is for general release. If anyone opts to copy and paste it for reprint on other blogs, we please ask that you copy and paste the entire thing.

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Over the past month and a half, Local #35 has been in negotiations with City Admin as part of our contract for 2008. (And YES, we know that we're one-third through `08 already.) These contract meetings have been held with the following represented: the Mayor's Office, Local #35, the NLR FOP, the NLRPD Supervisor's Association, and the NLR Retired Uniformed Officer's Association.

The contract talks involve fiscal considerations (aka "salary increases") and non-fiscal ones. As always, the fiscal considerations are the focus of the negotiation efforts; the non-fiscal issues are usually polished out at the end.

The City Admin initially suggested a plan based on a full cent sales tax in which half would sunset in 2 years, half in six years. Note that these timeframes coincide with drops in electrical rates, Plum Point, paying off the hydro plant, etc. City Admin's initial proposal suggested using these funds for employee salary increases, help with the retirees pensions, economic development, "jail funding" (which is misleading, I'll explain later), and electric rate relief.

The Unions considered the proposal, but we had some problems with it. We're leery of asking the people for a tax given the economic climate. We are also concerned about getting something that guarantees exactly how the funds will be used.

We have met twice since then, and the proposal has been changed. City Admin has now asked that the Unions come up with proposals for a one-half cent sales tax, which will fund public employee salaries, possibly hiring new police and fire officers, funding the new fire station at the east end of town, jail relief, and assisting the retired uniformed officers. City Admin has also expressed his hope that these proposals would allow funding for some other specific civic improvement; examples given were either a relief for the residential electric rates, or a new Little League Ballpark.

Some finer points:

• At this time, we are considering proposals for a salary increase for ALL public employees. The non-uniformed never asked to be lumped in with our negotiations in the first place, but from a negotiating standpoint, they're helpless. No offense, but lets call a horse a horse. We hope that we will be able to count on their support in our efforts.
• "Jail Relief": it is my understanding that this does not mean "give money to the Pulaski County Jail". This means additional funding for the NLRPD to use to deal with arrestees. Currently, we ship em to Faulkner County (and frankly, I LOVE that idea). The current feeling at these meetings is overhauling the NLR jail is not an efficient use of the money; shipping em off to other counties is.
• Retired Uniformed Officers: policemen and firemen who retired over 20 years ago receive a woefully inadequate pension, and no COLA increases. Some of you may recall a retired NLRFD Captain speaking at the Town Hall meeting earlier this year who earns a monthly pension of around $500. We are hoping for a proposal that will increase this by roughly $160 per month.

Our primary goal is to shore up our sagging Public Safety structure, as well as the retirees' pensions. Civic improvements like electric relief or a new ballpark are welcome as far as we're concerned, if they're only a minor part of the package.

Like most people following this topic, we are very wary of unspecified use of these funds. I'm not a lawyer, but I don't believe it will be possible to write a tax proposal that outlines specifically where every penny will be spent. This is annoying, but it may be true: we may be forced to operate on good faith in some of these regards.

If this thing develops, I assure anyone reading this that Local #35 will be keeping a very close eye on how the money is accumulated and spent. I believe I speak for the FOP as well.

Fraternally,

Tetkoskie (aka "PharaohTet" in the blog-world).

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Holy Smokin' Catfish!! THE NEW LICENSE PLATES ARE READY!

Got email from the El Dorado Gang; the new plates are ready and should be at a DMV near you!! OK, not as of right now, but should be in by Monday.

You MUST submit a completed application to get one of these plates; the application can be gotten from HERE and requires the signature of your Local's Secretary (which is me).

I don't know if there's a cost associated with this, but I figure there must be.

Update

The list of Offices which should have the plate are HERE.

[NOTICE: Local #35 and the Blog Author do not guarantee that this product is available at all locations. If yours doesn't have them, go home and cry, or try another DMV.]

State of the Treasury

A number of people wonder about our money situation. Here it is.

We have a comfortable amount of money. By that, I mean that we have enough to sustain ourselves "legally", if you get my drift. In fact, we can sustain ourselves quite a few times, by my estimate.

We have a solid PAC fund. Most of you contribute to the PAC Fund. The average PAC contribution is fifty cents per pay period, and I would like everyone to know that that small amount (".. a coke every payday ..") makes a huge difference. To date, we've invested about $500 of it amongst candidates of our choice (both on the state and local level) and that is only a small percentage of what the Fund has. This year, we have four aldermen elections and one mayoral coming up; although we haven't gone to specs on it yet, we intend to commit a major portion of our PAC Funding into this. Anyone who doesn't believe that getting labor-friendly people in office is living under a rock.

A small percentage of our membership prefer not to contribute to the PAC Fund for moral or philosophical reasons. I have no problem with that as long as you're doing the right thing.

Our money is "break even". That means the money going IN balances the money going OUT. This makes me leery of committing to any continuous expenses (such as cell phone expenses for the Union Officers); any additional ongoing expenses will put us in a decline.

Many of you should remember the Show Fund from the good ol' days. The Show Fund was a charitable income arrangement that provided us with an extra $1,000 per month. The Show Fund dried up in 2000, and we were suddenly faced with that shortfall. We recouped some of that when the Mayor tricked us out of the Lodge back in 04, and we balanced the show fund loss with a dues increase of $2.50 per pay period years ago.

It's been suggested that we could save on expenses by eliminating the Union Officer's Salaries. This is a pretty good idea; it would provide an extra $900 per month on revenues. Most of the IAFF Locals in Arkansas don't pay their Officers a salary, after all. We'll be happy to make that arrangement just as soon as we find three Union Officer candidates who are willing to do the work at no cost. I think I speak for Vance and Miller when I say that the we (the current Officers) will not work for nothing; there may be some member out there who will.

Local #35 does a lot of charitable work (notably, BuzzBQ and the JMBBB Fishing Tournament). We typically help fund Camp Sunshine; this year, we've committed the BuzzBQ proceeds to the Arkansas Fallen Firefighters Memorial. I'm pleased to say that the benefitting organizations we select receive 100% of the funds we provide (no "administration costs") since they're all volunteer organizations. Note that the MDA incurs a 26% Administration cost.

Anyone needing specific details about our funding should contact me at their soonest convenience.

What if the NLR City Council were run like this?