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DATELINE ~ Sept. 22, 2005
>>>> JOB WELL DONE, AND DESERVED |
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WE DID IT!!! - COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE RECEIVES SALARY
ADJUSTMENT DPS CHIEF ELLISTON ANNOUNCES 6.8% SALARY ADJUSTMENT FOR
COMMUNICATIONS PERSONNEL EFFECTIVE ON OCTOBER 1, 2005
The efforts of DPSOA Board Members were rewarded for
employees of the DPS Communications Service to the tune of 6.8 per cent.
This salary adjustment comes after the Legislative Mandated 4.0% or minimum $100
per month pay raise which went into effect on September 1, 2005
Salary Structure (Starting salary figures)
PCO I (A12) = $2,281 per month
PCO II (A13) = $2,414 per month
PCO III (A14) = $2,557 per month
PCO IV (A15) = $2,708 per month
SPCF & RSPC salary figures are too varied due to the
minimum & maximum salary scale in
Salary Schedule B of each supervisor to include.
DPSOA President Brian Hawthorne expressed his pleasure to
the DPS Administration and especially to Highway Patrol Division Chief Randy Elliston on
accomplishing this very much needed salary adjustment for the Communications Personnel.
President Hawthorne also commended Board Members Gary
“Yig” Patterson and Darla Ross for
“spearheading” this effort and their hard word and
dedication for over 18 months in seeing these
Efforts come to a very successful conclusion.
President Hawthorne further eluded to how working
together with the Department’s Administration
and establishing a positive dialog with the Association’s
Board and members, exciting things can
be accomplished and will continue to bring fruitful
endings
A JOB WELL DONE, AND DESERVED.
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DATELINE ~ June 20, 2005 |
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The Governor has signed SB 732 and HB
1589, which are our identical pre-employment polygraph bills.
He has also signed SB 1863, which is the bill that increases
hazardous duty pay for commissioned peace officers and longevity pay
for non-commissioned. |
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DATELINE ~ June 20, 2005 |
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SB 1 -- The Appropriations Bill -- was
signed by the Governor on Saturday, June 18. The Governor used
his line-item veto authority to veto various propositions in the
Bill; however, none of those vetoes affected the budget for DPS, the
pay raise and stipends for schedule C, the pay raise for state
employees, or money appropriated to ERS for state employee health
insurance. |
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DATELINE ~ May 31, 2005
"Update on Longevity and Hazardous Duty Pay" |
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LONGEVITY AND
HAZARDOUS DUTY UPDATE:
Larry
McGinnis had previously reported that the Senate Finance Committee
had decided to "grandfather" existing return-to-work employees
from the legislative provisions that cut back their employment
benefits (see original message below). He reported that these
provisions were included in HB 3540. Larry now reports that these
provisions have been shifted to SB 1863. When HB 3540 was sent
to a conference committee to work out the differences between the
House and Senate versions, conferees decided to streamline that
bill by moving many of its provisions over to SB 1863, which was
also in a conference committee. The grandfather provisions and
the increases in longevity pay for noncommissioned state employees
and hazardous duty pay for commissioned state employees can now be
found in ARTICLE 13 of the conference committee report for SB 1863
(not yet available online, but will be soon at
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/. When the conference
committee report for HB 3540 was laid out on May 27 without the
longevity and hazardous duty pay provisions, DPSOA spend most of
the day working closely with the Texas Public Employees
Association (TPEA) in making sure those provisions were included
in the conference committee report for SB 1863, which was laid out
on May 28. All three of TPEA's lobbyists as well as two of
DPSOA's lobbyists (Larry and Eric Wright) stayed with SB 1863
until it was certain that this bill would include the longevity
and hazardous duty pay language that is so important to both
organizations.
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DATELINE ~ May 26, 2005 |
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PRE-EMPLOYMENT
POLYGRAPH. HB 1589 by Representative Joe Driver and SB 732 by
Senator Tommy Williams (relating to the administration of
polygraph examinations to certain applicants for positions in the
Department of Public Safety) both passed yesterday (May 25).
These bills were filed at the request of DPSOA. Due to a
legislative coincidence, both bills ended on calendars in the
House and Senate on the same day and passed within hours of each
other. With some technical amendments made by the House to SB
732, both bills are identical. The Senate must concur in those
House amendments, while HB 1589 will be sent straight to the
Governor's office for his consideration. DPSOA will be preparing
letters to be sent to the Governor in support of these two bills.
PHARMACY
BOARD. You will recall that one of the reasons we must fend off
other law enforcement groups from getting themselves attached to
the peace officer/custodial officer supplemental retirement fund
is because the investigators for the State Board of Pharmacy were
included some years ago. These investigators serve as a "gate
opener" since the other groups point to them as partial
justification for being added. SB 262 by Senator Tommy Williams
(relating to benefits from the Employees Retirement System of
Texas for law enforcement officers commissioned by the Texas State
Board of Pharmacy) removes future investigators from the
supplemental retirement fund while grandfathering existing
investigators. This bill, filed at the request of DPSOA, has been
signed by the Governor and becomes effective on September 1. The
reason this action is so important is that DPSOA spent
considerable time and energy this session fighting legislation
that would have added a number of other employee groups to the
fund, such as college campus police officers, arson investigators,
child support investigators, fire marshal investigators, fire
rescue specialists, and others. Removing the gate opener will
help us in future legislative sessions keep these groups off of
the fund. We owe a great deal of thanks the Representative Craig
Eiland, chairman of the House Pensions and Investments Committee,
as well as the other members of his Committee, for not allowing
those bills to pass.
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DATELINE ~ May 23, 2005 |
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Larry McGinnis,
legislative consultant for the Department of Public Safety Officer's
Association (DPSOA), reports that the Senate Finance Committee has
decided to "grandfather" existing return-to-work employees from the
legislative provisions that cut back some of their employment
benefits. You may recall that something like eight bills were filed
this session that affected return-to-work employees by ending their
longevity pay, ending their benefit replacement pay, and
recalculating the accrual of their annual leave based solely on
their years of service as rehires.
The Senate
committee substitute to HB 3540 changes some of that.
First, it provides
that a "state employee who retired from state employment on or after
June 1, 2005" (and who is receiving an annuity from the state) is
not eligible for longevity pay. This means that retired employees
who have returned to work before June 1, 2005, may keep their
longevity pay, thus "grandfathering" in all existing return-to-work
employees. The payment of hazardous duty pay to existing
return-to-work employees remains untouched by this legislation.
Second, the bill
increases longevity pay for active state employees by changing the
monthly calculation of $20 for every three years of service to $20
for every two years of service, thereby accelerating the accrual of
longevity pay. This is a good thing for state employees and is
something that DPSOA supported in its work with the Texas Public
Employees Association (TPEA) this session. However, the longevity
increase will not apply to existing return-to-work employees if they
have "retired from state employment before June 1, 2005." Rehires
will keep their longevity pay, but at the current rate.
Third, HB 3540
grandfathers existing return-to-work employees for benefit
replacement pay. It states that "an eligible state employee who
retired from state government on or after June 1, 2005...is
ineligible to receive benefit replacement pay," meaning that
existing return-to-work employees who are eligible for BRP may keep
it if they have returned to work before June 1, 2005.
Fourth, the bill
provides that for the purposes of computing vacation leave, "a state
employee who retired from state employment on or after June 1,
2005," and who is receiving an annuity from the state, calculation
of years of service for annual leave "includes only the length of
state employment after the date the state employee retired." Thus,
the computation of vacation for new return-to-work employees will be
based on the time they have put in as rehires -- existing
return-to-work employees have been grandfathered.
Fifth, HB 3540
increases hazardous duty pay from $7 for each 12-month period of
service to $10 for each 12-month period of service; the cap was
raised from $210 to $300. This, too, is something that DPSOA
supported in its work with TPEA on state employee benefits this
session.
Once the committee
substitute is on line, you may examine these changes by accessing
Texas Legislature Online at
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/.
Follow the prompts to get to the Senate Committee Report and, once
in the bill, scroll down to the ARTICLE entitled, COMPENSATION FOR
CERTAIN STATE EMPLOYEES WHO RETURN TO STATE EMPLOYMENT. It was
ARTICLE 3 in an earlier version of the substitute, but might have
been changed. CSHB 3540, as it is now known, must be approved by the
full Texas Senate some time before the Wednesday deadline for
passing bills in the Senate. |
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May 18th, 2005 |
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Dear
DPSOA Member:
At the
beginning of the legislative session, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst,
joined by Speaker of the House Tom Craddick and members of the Texas
Senate and the Texas House of Representatives, called for a pay
raise for state law enforcement officers. As you may recall, DPSOA
was invited by Lt. Governor David Dewhurst to participate in the
press conference, which was organized at the Texas State Capitol to
help generate legislative support for a pay raise for commissioned
peace officers paid under schedule C. In addition to calling for a
pay raise, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst and Speaker Craddick also supported a
stipend program for law enforcement officers who achieve higher
peace officer certification, master a second language, or earn
advanced college degrees.
Just
this week, the various Senators and Representatives who serve on the
state budget conference committee reached a decision on a schedule C
pay raise. Details are available on the DPSOA website at
www.dpsoa.com, under “Legislative Program” now that the
conference committee members completed their official deliberations,
we thought you would like to know about the raise.
The
final pay increase for all of schedule C totals over $88 million
dollars. This includes a base pay increase of approximately $65
million, money for stipend pay of almost $13 million, and benefits
of over $10 million. The stipend proposal will pay $150, $100, or
$50 per month respectively for a Masters, Bachelors or Associates
degree, or for a Masters, Advanced or Intermediate TCLEOSE
certificate. Each schedule C participant must choose between the
education or the TCLEOSE stipend. Additionally, a schedule C
participant may receive a bilingual stipend of $50 per month should
they be certified by the Department as a bilingual speaker. The new
version of schedule C is attached for your review
The
Board of Directors and Legislative Committee of DPSOA appreciate the
work of the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives for the
raise and stipend. We are especially pleased with the work put in
by Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, Speaker Tom Craddick, Senator Steve
Ogden, Senator John Whitmire, Representative Jim Pitts,
Representative Sylvester Turner, and the other Senators and
Representatives who serve on the budget conference committee. We
also would like to thank several other law enforcement organizations
for their support and participation, which were important to the
process – Texas State Troopers Association, Texas Game Warden
Association, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Agents Association,
Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, and the Texas Public
Employees Association.
I would like to give a sincere thanks to the D.P.S.
Director’s office, D.P.S.O.A. Legislative Committee and our
legislative consultants, Larry McGinnis of Hughes & Luce, L.L.P. and
Eric Wright of Eric Wright & Associates for their hard work and
dedication to the Department of Public Safety Officers Association’s
legislative agenda.
Sincerely,
Brian C. Hawthorne
DPSOA
President |
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