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“Ours
is a union that is great, not because it is perfect, but because it was
born in a spirit of righteousness. As Peace Officers, our first
obligation is to protect the moral principles and ideals that are the
foundation of the law enforcement profession. It is our obligation to
one another to right the wrongs we encounter, and to pass this task on
to future generations. While greatness may be achieved in this public
service, your true potential will only be realized when you join with
others in this common effort. Here is the place where you create
something that becomes larger than yourself."
Mark Falcione
P.O.C. Interim Director
and Legal Defense Liaison Officer
The following page outlines the reasons behind
P.o.C. having to change it's Legal Defense agreement and issuing 'cease
& desist' notifications to purveyors of 'misleading' information . . .
. . . and so, to the latest and the greatest
where CAUSE / CSLEA defends itself to the last Peace Officer:
Click here for the summary of
events . . . or read below for the chronology of events:
Tuesday 29th November
2011:
. . . and it came to pass that
Lackie, Dammeier,
and McGill decided not to renew
P.o.C.'s
legal defense for
January 2012 (why after 3 years you wonder?) giving a 60 day notice:
Lackie, Dammeier,
and McGill 60 day LD termination notice
Wednesday 30th November 2011:
The Board of
P.o.C.
directors immediately prepared a statement the
next day, releasing it to applicable members on Friday 2nd December via
e-mail:
e-mail
termination notice to members
Within a few days the Board of Directors had
identified alternative legal defense coverage and within a week
completed the negotiation processes leading to the following
announcement that was released to applicable members on:
Monday 12th December 2011:
A copy of that announcement is as follows:
P.o.C.
Legal Defense Contract with Rose Law . . .
To:
All
P.o.C.
Legal Defense
Members
From:
Mark Falcione,
P.o.C.
Legal Defense
Liaison
Date:
December 12, 2011
Subject:
P.o.C.
Legal Defense
Contract with Rose Law
Valued Member,
Effective February
1, 2012, the Rose Law Firm will be taking over the
Legal Defense contract for
Peace Officers of
California. The Legal Defense
services provided by Rose Law will be exactly
the same as those formerly provided by
Lackie, Dammeier, and McGill, and the cost for those
services will also be exactly the
same. Therefore, there will be NO increase in your
membership dues. The only things that will change
are the names of your Legal Defense attorneys.
As most of you
should know, our current provider of legal defense,
Lackie, Dammeier and McGill notified us last week
that they would no longer be providing our legal
defense needs. Each
P.o.C.
member should have received a copy of the
60 day notice in my e-mail memo. The notice was
sent to the e-mail address you listed on your
P.o.C.
membership application. If a personal e-mail
address was not listed, it should have gone to your
work email address (unless you asked to be removed
from our e-mail lists.) In any event, please be
advised that the
P.o.C.
Board of Directors held a Special Board Meeting last
Friday and voted to enter into the contract
with (Joe) Rose Law so that they could take over our
Legal Defense representation needs. To view their
current website:
http://www.joeroselaw.com/cms/
This is, in fact,
great news for many reasons! Joe Rose has been an
ally in the fight to obtain a “Peace Officer Only”
bargaining unit since the beginning of this
campaign. He is independent (read: not influenced
by politics or other POA’s) and has wide ranging
experience in labor relations, contract
negotiations, and legal defense. We have been
served well by our current law firm, but the
contract we entered into with them three years ago
was temporary and based on the outcome of the PERB
Severance Hearings decision. Politics run deep in
Sacramento and we are pleased to report to each of
you that the
P.o.C.
Board is confident that the new choice for legal
defense has the experience, orientation, motivation,
and staff to represent our varied groups of peace
officers.
We are in the
process of updating both organizational websites.
We will provide you with a 24/7 Legal Defense Hot
Line phone number for Rose Law during the month of
January. We look forward to a long and dynamic
relationship with Rose Law. We have already had
discussions regarding our mutual future plans in
which we will be expanding our organizations and the
array of services we offer. Rose Law has committed
to working in a mutually focused direction with
Peace Officers of
California in order to address our
unique needs and expand both organizations. If you
would like to contact the
P.o.C.
Board of Directors, please phone, fax or e-mail us
as listed on the web-site at:
http://www.peaceofficers.org/contact_us.html
. . . and so, thinking all had been made
clear, the
P.o.C.
Board relaxed in the knowledge that it had protected the Members
interests in finding a Legal firm willing to support the Legal Defense
needs of the serving Peace Officers . . . and then, WHAT $#@!@#$ .
. . on:
Wednesday
21st December 2011:
a CAUSE / CSLEA e-newsletter was released with
inaccurate statements just a few days before Christmas, requiring
the volunteer members of the Board, yet again, to rise to the occasion
by contacting outstanding legal professionals, yet again, to prevent the
miss-information issued from jeopardizing the harmony of professional
lives through causing disruption and anguish (as per usual) for no real
reason other than simply that!
CAUSE / CSLEA:
Do not suffer a lapse in your
Legal Defense Fund Coverage!
Our response was:
Friday 23rd December
2011:
P.o.C. serves a
'cease and desist' warning to CAUSE / CSLEA
and later issues an ems (Electronic Mail Shot)
to all BU 7 Peace Officers so that they might know what was actually
going on with an administration that was supposedly protecting and
nurturing the interests of the Peace Officer contingent of members who
are actually still a part (in most cases) of the actual bargaining unit
(even if it is only a minor ~40% of the overall BU)!!
Tuesday 3rd January
2012:
Valued BU 7 Peace Officers;
Unfortunately, some of you may
have received a CSLEA E-Newsletter on 12/21/11 which contained blatantly
false and misleading information regarding
P.o.C.'s
Legal
Defense status. In their Newsletter, CSLEA claimed there would be a
lapse in Legal Defense coverage and encouraged our Members to quit and
re-join CSLEA.
This is absolutely false information being published
about P.o.C.
by
CSLEA.
We recently announced
to our Membership that there would be a change in Legal Defense
attorneys, but there will be NO lapse in coverage, NO decrease in
services, and NO increase in our $30 monthly dues. To be clear, on
February 1st, 2012, the Rose Law Firm will take over Legal
Defense representation for
P.o.C.
Because CSLEA is not only publishing false
information, but also making false suggestions regarding
P.o.C.’s
ability to retain Legal Defense Counsel,
even though we already have secured Legal Defense, we have had one
of our attorneys send them a Cease and Desist Demand (copy attached,
link
here).
We apologize for all the drama being created by
CSLEA’s latest attack against
P.o.C. However,
we felt the need to set the record straight and provide you with the
TRUTH, as always.
We hope you and your families had a Happy and
Healthy Holiday Season and we look forward to enjoying a more prosperous
2012 with all of you.
Thank you for your Service
Victor U. Sanchez,
President
Peace Officers of California
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© =>2007 Peace
Officers of California, Inc.
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