Gary Fox has submitted an excellent letter that he has sent to legislaror.  Read it carefully there are some interesting things in it.  Click here for a copy.

The LEOFF 2 Board spent a whole bunch of the taxpayers' money buying legal opinions from two law firms.  They have chosen to keep them secret and have thus crippled the ability of the stakeholders to evaluate the legal issues properly. They claim that everything is legal and that we should trust them.  We think things are a lot more complicated than that and we don't trust them.  So, here are legal opinions from two Washington law firms -- both have extensive experience with LEOFF law.

Click here for the Phill Talmadge Report.

Click here for the Joe Fischnaller Report.

Click for a letter sent to sponsors of SB6563.

Click for letter to Senator Smith from Dave Stanford.

Click here for a listing of the email address for Representatives.

Click here for a listing of the email addresses for Senators.

I cannot emphasize how important it is that you contact your legislatorS by phone, email, letter or even better schedule a meet for coffee.  Please point out that HB 2350 and SB 6563 are bad bills and ask that they oppose these bills.  See other articles on this site for talking points.  PLEASE ACT NOW! 

We were notified late Friday, January 27, 2012 at 4:40 pm that the LEOFF 2 Retirement Board scheduled a special meeting for 9:00 am Monday, January 31, 2012.

Item #1 on the agenda was listed as: Review and Discussion of HB 2350. There was also an announcement of a possible executive session to discuss with legal counsel regarding a possible charge of a legal violation of the Open Meeting Law.

At the regular meeting on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 the board voted not endorse HB 2350, the LEOFF 1/LEOFF 2 Meger Bill. At the special meeting a motion was passed to reconsider the previous board action not to endorse HB 2350. After some discussion a motion was passed by a vote of 6 to 4 to overturn the board's previous action not to endorse HB 2350 and to endorse HB 2350. There was no public hearing and no opportunity for interested parties to comment as the board discussed the reconsideration. It was quite obvious that the Chair had secured two votes to overturn the previous vote and didn't want to cloud the issue.

The two employer representatives and the LEOFF 1 member voted not to endorse. The majority of the LEOFF 2 members, except for one, including Representative Kevin Van De Wege who is also a LEOFF 2 member voted to overturn the board's previous action and endorse HB 2350. The Chair, Kelly Fox, although there was not a tie, voted to endorse the bill.

Monday evening at about 5 PM a new bill, SB6563, was introduced.  It is the same bill as HB2350 but on the Senate side.  The sponsors are Senators Brown, Harper, Hobbs, Murray, Pridemore, and Delvin. It had a first reading on January 31 and was referred to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The following paragraph is from the WCFF Legislative Update that was circulated on Saturday, January 28th.

"On Wednesday January 25th the LEOFF Plan 2 Board met. Following presentations from LEOFF Plan 2 board staff, Office of the State Actuary (OSA) staff, and public testimony on the HB 2350, a motion to support HB2350 was made and was not successful. On the following day, a board member that was present for the vote voiced concern that the decision was made without full knowledge of important information and asked for an opportunity to reconsider the motion. A special board meeting has been called for on Monday January 30th at 9:00am".

It isn’t often during government hearings that you hear someone actually ask the question, “Why are we doing this, anyway?”

It’s even rarer when the person testifying concedes he isn’t altogether sure.

Ted Fehr wrote to Senator Cantwell about the Windfall Elimination Provision. The windfall elimination provision reduces the Social Security benefits of workers who also receive pension benefits from other employment not covered by Social Security, such as the Federal Civil Retirement System. Public employees often have salaries that are lower than those in the private sector, and the windfall reduction makes it more difficult to recruit employees into these positions.

Also please see our article from 2009.  The letters are pretty much the same.  Just updated a bit

Recently there has been a circulation of emails supporting HB2350. The items listed appear to be pretty much a repeat of the claims and statements of the LEOFF 2 Board meeting materials and some lobbying talking points from LEOFF 2 organizations. Most of them are just plain wrong or are constructed so as to sound positive but at the same time leave out critical information. Those omissions tend to make the statements untrue. In this article we review the claims being circulated.

The LEOFF 2 Board met on January 25th.  A review of HB2350 was presented by Director Steve Nelsen and this was followed by a motion to support HB2350.  After some discussion and comments from each member of the board the vote was taken. 

THE MOTION TO SUPPORT HB2350 WAS SOUNDLY DEFEATED!

We went into the meeting expecting the Board to support this bill and were delighted to hear various Board members speak and show a great deal of reflection on the issue.  Many simply rejected the shallow arguments offered by staff as not adequate to meet the standard they needed to meet their fiduciary duty to the LEOFF 2 officers and fire fighters. 

The LEOFF 2 Board staff created a couple of documents for presentation as meeting materials at the January 25th meeting.  To us they seem like lobbying talking points rather than a careful review of the facts.

We have done a review of the statements in those handouts to present our perspective on the issues.

See the LEOFF 2 Handout  |  See our review
See the Merger Comparison Handout | See our Comparison Handhout

Just follow these links.

• Representative Email list is here: https://dlr.leg.wa.gov/MemberEmail/Default.aspx?Chamber=H
• Senator Email list is here: https://dlr.leg.wa.gov/MemberEmail/Default.aspx?Chamber=S
• Find your district and legislators: http://www.leg.wa.gov/pages/home.aspx

WACOPS has circulated their take on HB 2350.  The problem is they have it wrong.  Either they do understand the bill or are putting out incomplete and misleading information. Whe have published their talking points and our take on them here.

20 REASONS TO

OPPOSE HB2350! 

Download a copy.

Read it online.

Well we are back at it again. A new merger bill has been written that claims to address the concerns we expressed about HB 2097 –  it doesn’t. As of this writing the bill has not yet been introduced but that is expected within the next few days.Please contact your representative and ask him or her to oppose any merger.Check back with LEOFF1.net frequently. We have a lobbying program in action and representative of LEOFF 1 organizations are meeting with legislators and lawyers. We will keep you posted on developments.Read the draft bill -- Click here for a copy.

1/11/2012 - The bill is now HB2350.  Get a copy here.

The merger study is out.   It is 142 pages long and does not say much.  You could argue that it supports your position on the issue regardless of what position you might hold.  See the full story for more discussion.

A copy is available for download from the Actuary website or from LEOFF1.Net.

The Washington Council of Fire Fighter, WACOPS and the FOP are preparing for another attempt to raid the LEOFF 1 pension fund.

Gov. Gregoire has issued her proposed Supplemental Budget for 2012. Among the suggestions is the following which has sent the Council of Fire Fighters, WACOPS and the FOP ballistic.

"Align LEOFF Plan 2 contributions with other state pension plans - $18.1 million."

See the full story for details.

The Governor has proposed a reduction in LEOFF 2 pension contributions.  This is the same thing that happened during the last session and was the proximate cause of HB 2097 being put forward.  This article is the response of the Council of Fire Fighters, FOP and WACOPS to the goveronor's proposal.  They are once again suggesting a merger of LEOFF 1 & 2.