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James
Ward Second Vice President
E-mail: Sqd6143@aol.com
Congratulations to our new
County Executive
With a New Year comes a new
beginning for Nassau County government.
Ed Mangano, who the Superior Officers Association
has endorsed in every single election, takes the helm as
Nassau County Executive.
Ed has promised to have the Unions more involved
then his predecessor.
He started almost immediately by meeting with the
Executive Board only a few days after Suozzi conceded
the election. We
addressed some of our issues with him especially in the
patrol division. Ed
immediately looked into some of our concerns and ended
some practices that were required of the patrol
supervisors, improving the working conditions of our
members.
As reported in the media, Ed has
decided to streamline County government and eliminate a
number of positions.
The position that directly affects the Superior
Officers Association is the elimination of a County
Labor Director. He
has decided that the responsibility of labor will be
handled by his second in command, the Chief Deputy
County Executive, Rob Walker.
This decision should work for everyone.
We will no longer have to go through a number of
people to get a decision made.
I’m sure we will have our differences.
After meeting Rob, we feel reassured to work with
someone who seems to be a fair individual and who is not
afraid to make a decision.
Grievances
In our conversation with Rob
Walker, it was agreed that some contractual issues that
we can’t come to a resolution on will go through the
grievance process, therefore, we are moving forward with
two issues.
The first is the Records
Bureau Vacation grievance.
The position of the Department is that there is
no Memorandum of Agreement placing Records Bureau into
the Chart Orange Pilot Program which addresses vacation
selections. I
have produced this document for the Department which was
signed by former Commissioner Kane, former S.O.A.
President, Nick Baudo and former Labor Director, Anthony
Russo on October 30, 1997.
The Department still refuses to accept that this
document exists and we will now move forward to have an
arbitrator decide on this issue.
We have contacted the co-coordinator for Labor
Relations asking him to expedite this grievance.
The second issue is the Re-Opener
which was heard by Arbitrator, Howard Edelman, a number
of months ago. The
issue on this is that the commands that receive the
B.S.O. stipend have that money placed into their base
salary and also the meal money for travel be increased.
Hopefully, a decision will come shortly.
Promotions
Congratulations to all newly
promoted Lieutenants, Inspectors and Chiefs.
Hopefully, we will see more promotions soon.
Until next time….stay safe out
there.
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