From: Don Campbell, president Unified Police Federation

Subject: Labor meeting with the Sheriff for March 2013

Tuesday 3/5/13 ~ This is the regularly scheduled meeting with the Sheriff and Labor.

I asked the Sheriff about the rumors of new agency or agencies joining UPD. The Sheriff has said that exploratory questions about UPD have been happening, and factors, including VECC & UPD, as well as other positive interaction with UPD, has raised the merits of Unified policing.

The Sheriff is NOT announcing the eminent decision of any agency joining or considering UPD.

I also mentioned some cautious optimism on the part of officers about the proposed budget, but the concern by officers on hearing of some remarks from two mayors during the last UPD board meeting.

The Sheriff remains optimistic about the budget proposal. He accepted responsibility, “I’ll take the blame”,  for the early reactions of the mayors, saying he felt he had been educating the board members on developing this process, but now accepted more information was needed.

He said one new mayor is getting a lot of information “through a firehose” and understands that situation. Another mayor proposed this budget being broken down over two years instead of within the 2014 budget year.

The Sheriff stated he did not want the UPD board members to feel he is boxing them in with this proposed budget and plans additional information efforts.

The Sheriff showed those attending the Labor meeting some financial breakdown on how a two year plan would look. He pointed out some large additional financial responsibilities of UPD (UCAN, URS, etc.) in 2015, that would complicate the two year plan concept. The Sheriff feels the proposed budget is already seen in a positive way by other board members and feels it has a good chance for success.

I brought up the Sheriff’s offer to present information to the UPD board about the concept of written agreement which the Federation has been proposing. The Sheriff had brought in his command staff for training on Labor concept in the past, and suggested the same would be useful for the consideration of the board. I appreciate and agree with the Sheriff on this. I offered Federation assistance to the Sheriff on hosting the training and made a recommendation of a possible presenter.

The Sheriff talked about transitioning to some degree from the current Communication and Intelligence committee method of delivering his messages; more to the approach of returning to his blog messaging. He is considering the idea of presenting open Q&A’s every two weeks.

The Sheriff also had a discussion about a market survey done for the Salt Lake County Jail recently. The market surveyed included Utah Co., Davis Co., Weber Co., Ada Co. (Idaho), Washoe Co. (Nevada)., and Utah State Prison. Secondary facilities also surveyed included Summit and Tooele Counties. That market survey will be used in developing proposals related to the Corrections Bureau.

The Sheriff mentioned his interest in stopping the high attrition rate ~ his rough estimate is that up to 85% of corrections officers leave, many to the Road. He mentioned that his Corrections staffing is currently down 70 officers. The Sheriff also mentioned his understanding of the career path beginning in Corrections but leading to other things.

Human Resources Director Dave Warnock wanted to bring to Labors attention:

The consideration of changing from the current Sick Leave bank to an employee paid and optional short-term disability coverage. The current example is AFLAK carried by some employees. Mr. Warnock said only 9 employees have used the sick leave bank in some time; those using the bank were approximately 85 to 90% civilian employees. Salt Lake County has implemented this change for all employees.

He also brought up the idea of using on-line enrollment in the future. He said the staffing and money used to hold open enrollment sessions were being looked at. He said that an existing system used by AFLAK could be used without cost, but some of the branding of the site by AFLAK should not be mistaken for the endorsement of AFLAK only.

He also brought up some employee concerns about our current coverage by Workcare Services for on-duty medical evaluation & care. He says a plan of surveying and evaluation of our employees and others using Workcare is being considered.

I will be visiting the Capitol today to recognize legislative and Labor representatives that have been working together in protecting our working conditions during this legislative session. I appreciate their efforts ~ that often doesn’t get notice.

Thanks for all you do.

Respectfully,

Don