I want to remind you that the October meeting will be at our regular meeting location, St. John’s Lutheran Church, 5515 Phinney Ave North, Seattle. Much to our surprise we were forced to find an alternate location for our September meeting because St. John’s was hosting a large rummage sale and would need our meeting room and the parking lot. We thought we had a verbal contract for the use of the meeting room with St. John’s and were hard pressed to find another location for the September meeting with such a short notice. We apologize for the inconvenience to those who attended the September meeting at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church. We felt that this would be a good time to look for a new meeting room for 2010. We need a room centrally located with easy access, bathrooms, good parking, a place to make coffee, low rent and secured with a lease for at least two years. Please look around and contact us with any ideas or suggestions.

We enjoyed the meeting room at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church but the church is not able to guarantee that the room will be available each month in 2010. Some facilities like the Lake City Elks require that we purchase a minimum of sixteen lunches at about $9.00 each plus coffee and gratuity. The bill for a couple attending the meeting would be about $22.00 unless they ordered a more expensive lunch. We would have the disruption in the meeting of having to order from the menu, being served, and paying the ticket. If we had 50 members attend, 16 would have to order lunch. This process would extend the meeting and I am not sure that 16 people would want to stay and have lunch after the meeting.

Those of you who have medical insurance with Seattle Fire Fighters Family Medical may have heard that the name and administration of Family Medical will soon change. I believe the insurance plan will still be managed by Local 27 but will be administered by an outside agency that will serve as consultants for the premiums, plan design (coverage), plan administration, eligibility and claim service. We will no longer have the in house staff to answer questions, assist with medical bills, advise on coverage and coordinate with Medicare. In the future you may not speak to the same person twice on the phone and there may not be any walk-in service. I assume this change will produce a savings that will off-set future rate increases but there will certainly be a reduction in service particularly to older retirees who built Family Medical and Local 27.

I remember back in 1962 when I first served on the Board of the Seattle Firefighters Hospital Association, the insurance companies had told us that we could not be successful with an in house medical insurance plan self administered, but we have proved them wrong. I would like to see the new agency selected by Local 27 to administer the plan, maintain an in house claim service with our existing staff to help the retirees with claims and other insurance needs, or at least hire one or two of our current staff to serve as claims processors for our plan.
At present there is a moratorium on non Seattle Fire Department retirees joining Family Medical. I have received a list of questions but fortunately I don’t have the answers. I have arranged for someone from Local 27 to speak at our October meeting to explain why, when and how this decision was made and to answer any questions.

I regret that I will not be able to chair the October meeting as I will be out of town, however I will provide Vice President Jim Fossos with information and I am confident he will keep the meeting running smoothly.

You may have heard that the Retired Seattle Police Officers Association has dropped out of the LEOFF 1 Coalition. This action has been expected for a long time as they have failed to solve problems after making suggestions to make the Coalition a more open and professional organization.

There have been letters going back and forth with accusations and personal opinions. Jerry Taylor, the President of the Retired Seattle Police Officers Association was appointed to the LEOFF 1 Coalition board as the R.S.P.O.A. representative.

The LEOFF 1 Coalition board voted to remove Jerry from the Coalition board even though he was appointed by the R.S.P.O.A.

Jerry is also the webmaster of the LEOFF 1 Net and has been very open and has addressed his concerns with the Coalition.

We have received letters from Jerry, from Ron Larsen, a retired Everett firefighter, a member of the Coalition board and a member of the Retired Firefighters of Washington. We have also received a letter from Don Daniels, a Coalition board member. Each person has their opinion; however the facts are not clear or accurate. For example, Mr. Daniels states in his letter, indirectly as to why the RFFOW dropped out of the Coalition, when in fact he was not on the Coalition board when we withdrew. Nor has he talked to me as to our decision.
Mr. Larsen, in all due respect ,was not one of the original representatives who formed the Coalition and who served on the first board of directors. Both of these individuals are stating hearsay as fact even though they have not talked to all those involved. I made the motion at a meeting in the Tacoma Firefighters Hall to appoint the first president and secretary of the Coalition. I later decided that this was a mistake. Each of the two appointees were nice guys, well meaning with little to no experience in running an employee organization, very little experience in labor negotiations, legislative issues, lobbying, contract or pension administration, nor had the ability to run a meeting, and parliamentary procedure was out of the window.
The Coalition has now eroded into an organization with no actual membership, no elected officers and where no regular meetings are held. Consequently, no motions can be made by the supposed membership. There is no monthly newsletter to advise on decisions made or action taken.

Since 2000 the RFFOW has had a minimum of 11 LEOFF 1 bills introduced and about 10 bills passed into law.

I have yet to see a Coalition officer or director testify on any of these bills nor have I seen a written position from the Coalition on any of the bills. Because of Jerry Taylor’s experience and knowledge, his communication skills, training, work experience, prior positions held, and the fact that he was elected by the retired officers to represent them, I would have to lean towards Jerry’s position on the Coalition. I will try to arrange a meeting with Ron Larsen who is a member of the RFFOW for his insight on this subject.

We will soon announce a new dental plan sponsored by the RFFOW for all public employee retirees. The plan will be open to spouses, surviving spouses and dependents.