Agency Shop

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE January 31, 2008
  

Sergeant and lieutenant Agency Shop Letter Click Here: PDF Format

Sergeants and lieutenant Challenge Letter Click Here: PDF Format

Notice of Hearing letter for Deputies re: ALADS Agency Shop PDF Format

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE January 28, 2008
  

Every Sergeant should have received an "agency shop" packet in the mail. Please complete, sign and submit the objector's challenge form included in your agency shop packet to PPOA. Make a copy of the objector's challenge and send certified mail if possible. This preserves your rights to challenge the fair share amount.

LASPA will challenge the "fair share amount" and the Hudson audit conducted by PPOA during the arbitration hearing.

The hearing should be set with in a few months. There seems to be some discrepancies with the calculation of the fair share fee that we are looking forward to addressing at the agency shop arbitration hearing.

Under the section which allows you to put the amount you think is appropriate please indicate $15-20.

If you have, any questions please feel free to contact LASPA at 323-981-2850.

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE DEPUTY ARBITRATION HEARING UPDATE January 28, 2008

The arbitration hearing has been set for Friday, February 22, 2008 and Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 1000 hours in Room 374, Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA.

You have the right to be present. We will contact the department in regards to going on duty since it is a job related issue. We will keep you posted.

LASPA was successful in lowering the agency shop fee in the last arbitration hearing. We look forward to cross examining the fair share fee accountants and reducing the fair share fee amount.

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE February 20, 2006

Apparently sometime next month in February, ALADS will be mailing out a reduced fair share fee application for the year 2006 (ALADS has not filed for agency shop renewal). The reduced fair share fee application will lower your dues to approx $37.00 a month. Please complete paperwork, make a copy for your own records and mail back to ALADS through certified mail. If you'd like, you can also mail LASPA the copy and we can retain it for you.

If you don't receive the application within a timely manner, please contact ALADS as soon as possible, so they can mail one out to you. If you still do not receive the packet, please contact our office.

FYI: Agency shop will end in May of 2006. In order for Agency shop to pass again, ALADS must put it on a ballot through ERCOM. Please talk to your work mate that agency shop has not led to a better contract or benefited anyone but ALADS itself.

Please feel free to contact our office to see how you can help or if you have any questions or concerns.

LASPA appreciates all your support!!

Updating our Database: Please let LASPA know if there have been any current changes to your mailing address, unit of assignment, phone numbers, emails, or rank. This information can better us in keeping you updated.

AGENCY SHOP UPDATE JANUARY 23, 2006

All Deputies who submitted a reduced fair share fee letter to ALADS in the year 2004 should have received a letter from the American Arbitration Association outlining that LASPA has won a miniscule victory. LASPA is in the process of seeking legal fees from ALADS. Please let us know if you have not received the letter ASAP.

The most ALADS can charge for agency shop is approximately $38 which is almost half of what they were charging initially. LASPA was disappointed that the fees were not reduced to the low teens. However, we are seeking the legal opinion from the arbitrator before we seek recourse to possibly challenging the arbitrators accounting.

Agency shop ends in May 2006. This means a deduction will no longer be charged unless they seek an election to pass agency shop.

LASPA MEMBERSHIP: Our membership has maintained steady despite loosing almost a hundred deputies to other agencies or retirement. Updating our Database.

Please let LASPA know if there have been any current changes to your mailing address, unit of assignment, phone numbers, or rank. This information can better us in keeping you updated.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact our office at 888-958-9998.

AGENCY SHOP UPDATE November 16, 2005

We currently spoke with the offices of the American Arbitration Association, according to their records the decision has been concluded, but they cannot disclose any information of the decision at this time. The AAA is waiting for some information from ALADS, and once received they will mail out packages to all involved parties with the conclusion of Agency Shop. We will notify our members with any updates.

FYI, Agency shop ends in May 2006. There should be another election at the end of the year to keep it going. We must make sure to inform deputies about the election in order for us to make sure it does not pass again.

Rumors:

FYI, apparently it is being said that Roy Burns has officially been removed from his President position; this has not been confirmed. As soon as this is confirmed, we will notify you and post it on our website. Please feel free to contact our office if you have any questions or concerns.

LASPA appreciates your Support!

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE October 12th 2005

LASPA submitted a legal brief on Friday Sept. 16th. ALADS has until Oct. 8th to rebut our argument.

At this point the state arbitrator will render his decision within 15-20 days. Once we win then we can start the reimbursement phase. Agency shop ends in May 2006 and there should be another election at the end of the year to keep it going. We must make sure it does not pass again.

We are very confident that we should get a favorable ruling. Case law dictates that we must be able to cross examine witnesses who set the chargeable and non chargeable amounts. In this case, Dick Shinee, refused to testify. This in itself can win the case for us.

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE July 12th 2005

The agency shop arbitration hearing has concluded. Closing briefs are due on August 31th 2005.

Highlights: Ms. Villa, ALADS CPA, once again failed to recall important information despite having detailed notes in her possession that could be used to refresh her memory. Any person that has ever testified knows that when you are called to testify you should review all pertinent information before stepping on the witness stand. It was very convenient for the CPA of ALADS not to recall very much information. How can an audit be proper when the auditor can not recall information as to the allocation of chargeable hours?

Importantly, the person who determines what is chargeable and what is non-chargeable is required to testify. In this case, it was ALADS attorney Dick Shinee who made that determination. He failed to testify concerning his role in making that determination and in directing Ms. Villa on how to conduct the audit.

ALADS, in our opinion, has failed to establish the burden of proof that they conducted a proper audit of their finances for the year 2003.

The arbitrator will make his ruling 30 days after the briefs are submitted. LASPA will notify all members once the decision is in. Should you have any questions please feel free to call LASPA.

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE July 7th 2005:

The arbitration hearing went as well as expected. The first day of the hearing there was some confusion as to what was said by ALADS Office Manager Paul Mc Quinn. ALADS attorneys wanted the arbitrator to change his notes to clarify that Paul's testimony was taken out of context since it appeared to hurt ALADS when he changed his testimony after lunch. We then finished up with some other matters and finally got Rita Villa on the stand.

We asked how much Roy Burns made per year and she quickly said " I do not recall", without any thought. When asked if she was told by someone not to answer questions about directors money, she hesitated and finally said under oath "no" that no one told her not to answer questions about directors pay, but it appeared obvious to us that there was more to it. She could not give even give a ball park figure! Come on. She is the CPA and can not even give a ball park figure? Please! Rita did state that she did not know Roy Burns worked overtime on a regular basis. This would obviously impact his total salary figure since it was not dealing with agency shop.

According to some of Rita's testimony she has had the opportunity to look at W-3 and other documents. However in preparation for her testimony she claimed she never reviewed her notes or other documents for our hearing.

However, It was remarkable that she remembered very specifics language and coverage in regards to the legal charges, since it was the second highest Dollar amount next to salaries.

It appeared Rita's selective memory avoided some potential damaging information up to this point. Her testimony will continue as we reconvene in the first week of March.

LASPA feels it should be an easy question to answer, How much money do the board members make? The only time we have heard more "I do not recall" was Oliver North's infamous testimony on the contra hearings.

We will post the next date and invite all to attend and listen for themselves.

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE Jan 21st 2005:

January 11, 2005 hearing: The hearing went very well. We wish everyone could have seen the turmoil a simple question generated; How much money do you make? The objections and hot tempered remarks was worthy of pay per view.

Alads wanted a quick hearing date since we did not finish with the cross examination of their first witness. For the first time since we have engaged in this process ALADS wanted to reconvene the next morning.

They suffered some serious blows to the accounting methods used to determine the agency shop fee. One witness changed his testimony 180 degrees after lunch. Of course he said he had more time to reflect on the question despite having his answer repeated 5-7 times in the morning session.

The funny thing was that there was no stenographer recording the testimony. This is common practice for such hearings but Alads did not provide one; How convenient!

We are set to cross examine ALADS CPA, Rita Villa, on FEB 10th and 11th at 1000 hours. The CPA, according to Dick Shinee, has the "knowledge of all the finances in question" and "we can ask the questions we want." We will see.

We are excited about this opportunity since no one to our knowledge has been able to look at any financial records of any kind to determine the accuracy and integrity of union dues. Millions are collected for negotiations but yet less than 50,000 is spent directly on it. WHY?

We are encouraging all deputies to attend this hearing to hear for themselves what Alads has been hiding and is afraid to reveal!

Next Hearing Date: February 10 and 11 TIME: 1000 Hours

Location:
Hall of Administration
ERCOM ,Third Floor (CCH is located directly behind the building)
500 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA

• AGENCY SHOP UPDATE Jan 10th 2005:

The hearing officers recommendation does not make any sense and we obviously disagree with his interpretation of ERCOM rules. The actual written decision has been mailed to your unit reps to be posted at your unit of assignment.

Now we stand before the ERCOM Commissioners to request that they over rule the recommendation of the hearing officer and order a new election, which will stop agency shop deductions. If ERCOM does not change the recommendation of our unfair labor practice complaint then we can re-open our superior court law suit that was put on hold pending the resolution of the ERCOM hearing. This will begin immediately after the final decision.

We now focus on the arbitration hearing on Tuesday, January 11th. This hearing is designed to challenge the amount ALADS charges. PPOA members pay $7 a month compared to $42 that LASPA members pay. We have already subpoenaed key executives and other relevant witnesses for this hearing.

Additional Info: Some members have asked how long agency shop is in affect. The answer is three years and it ends automatically. Agency shop will end in 2006 and ALADS will have to put it to a vote again.