I have been working with L-157 President Scott Van Horn on contacting all Locals that have PACs in an effort to co-op PAC money for the House Leadership PAC event to be held October 23rd in Okmulgee and so far the response has been excellent.
Following many discussions with IAFF Vice President McGhee and with the direction of the PFFO Executive Board I met with Bartlesville President Josiah Rovenstine in regards to a PFFO Political Director position. With PFFO Board approval; the IAFF and PFFO will partner together to begin the process of building a political program within the PFFO to help get fire fighter friendly officials elected. Following my meeting with Josiah I believe this will be positive move for the PFFO and IAFF in the State of Oklahoma and that Josiah is the right person for the job.
A meeting was held with Rick Beams at the PFFO office to discuss the final findings of the PFFO trustees, these findings were based on several meetings with all relevant parties. I represented the PFFO along with Curtis Maloy, trustee, and with our legal counsel Doug Vernier and Vice President David Taylor was also in attendance. I will report on the results of that meeting in the committee section.
The policy committee met once again, we will provide a more detailed report in committee reports. The trustees have also met once to look at any potential policies that they would like to see in the board policies. There will be more report in the committee section.
The hiring committee interviewed six candidates to fill our open office staff position. There was one candidate who stood out and it was unanimous among all committee members as to who our recommendation would be. Following the interview process Chalk, Jennifer and myself met with the candidate for lunch to go over the details of the job and we believe she will be an excellent fit. There will be more report in the committee section.
Working to provide information on arbitrator list in Chickasha was able to utilize the services of the labor program at University of Little Rock to obtain information on some new arbitrators.
Attended the Fall meeting of the Federation of State and Provincial Professional Fire Fighters and below are my notes.
- Discussion by Mike Franier – President Colorado State association and Chief Don Lombardi – West Denver Metro Fire on Colorado State collective bargaining process and the combined efforts between the Chiefs association and State Fire fighters association to get legislation passed and how it is currently operating.
- Report by IAFF 9th District VP Ray Rahne on the IAFF 9th district.
- Steve Gervasio – IAFF Labor First Advocacy Program…..Program for IAFF retirees and solutions on health care. Have been working the last year and a half on a digital campaign with questionnaire gathering usable data to come up with what problems are out there and how to find solutions. Get retirees engaged on State level to provide more services for IAFF retirees. Multiple locals and State associations have signed up and utilizing service. Have been able to provide services to pension systems and local health care trust to save those systems and trust millions of dollars in some cases. Potential to have legislation to move medicare eligibility age down to 55.
- Report from Globe manufacturing on new and improved PPE and SCBA’s that are being studied or being put into service to improve fire fighter safety. Globe and MSA are partnering to work on these studies and to provide better equipment to enhance fire fighter safety.
- Don Heilman – Gallagher insurance group….Benefits and Insurance programs in NCPERS. Discussion on different programs offered for current and retired IAFF members, their spouses, and dependent children. NCPERS has also partnered with Identity Guard to provide programs of identity theft protection for its members.
- Bids on host site for Fall 2019 meeting….sites bidding were New York City, Vermont, Minneapolis, and Lake Tahoe……decision was made to let Minneapolis host in fall 2019, Spring 2020 meeting will be Nevada, and Fall 2020 meeting will be Vermont
- Treasurers report….General fund $28,596.63
- Donation approved for $2,000 to IAFF Disaster fund for Texas and Harvey
- Report from Nationwide on updated services provided to IAFF members; now working on program to give members reports on their “retirement readiness”, also have health care cost calculators
- Report from Miranda Jones who works for the IAFF Center of Excellence; general information about the services offered for IAFF members at the Center of Excellence; staff was required to participate in a FireOps training exercise
- Report from MDA/IAFF coordinator Roger Lopez and Tracey Gianneli
- Fire Pac presentation by IAFF Political coordinator Dave Lang….report on the political landscape across United States; “relationships before issues”;
The 7th annual PFFO Legislative Golf Tournament was held yesterday the 18th at the Golf Club of Edmond and we had 22 teams with around 10 Legislators who participated. Many thanks to Vice President Leach, Jennifer and Chalk for working to make another successful event.
The new phone system at the office is up and running and thanks to our IT consultant Matt the cost for the phone system will actually be $115 less than their bid.
The PFFO sent six members to the Beaumont Texas area to provide assistance for IAFF members who had damage to their homes. Thank you to Vice President Haines and Vice President Taylor along with the other members of the Bartlesville Local: Ron Williams, Jim Scully, and Barry Campbell along with Grahmm Smith from the Ada Local. These guys did a great job and I heard from the Texas guys that it was greatly appreciated.
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