Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Spike in Assaults on Prison Guards

KSTP is reporting: 

10 Officers have been assaulted at Oak Park Heights since last Friday...and... there have been 22 assaults on prison guards in the first 3 months of 2018.


Friday, March 23, 2018

Good Bye Jeff Weyek

Good bye long time Hennepin County Detention Deputy Jeff Weyek. Cecilia we all share the loss of a good man.


Tuesday, March 20, 2018

The Historic Hennepin County Jail

This is a great picture of the historic Hennepin County Jail. Source, Star Tribune. Photo by Glenn Stubbe.




Monday, March 19, 2018

Friday, March 16, 2018

Arbitrator rules against Sheriff Stanek on tattoos

The ridiculous fight over Hennepin County Sheriff Office (HCSO) employees with tattoos goes back to 2013.

I wrote about it in a post on this blog called, Semper Fi? Don't Apply!

Long story short, there was a Detention Deputy walked out because 4 months into her employment after they noticed a small tattoo on her forearm. She had the choice of either removing it or being terminated. The HCSO stood on a District Court ruling from 1985 saying they had the right to make grooming policy. That fight was over mustaches on men and fingernails on women.

It's nice to see an Arbitrator nudge the HCSO into the 21st century!

Click below for full story:

Hennepin County deputies win round in fight over tattoos

Monday, March 05, 2018

New Pension Bill

A new Bill has been introduced in the Minnesota  House and Senate affecting our PERA Correctional Pension (HF3053 and SF2620).

Originally the recomendation was to lump our PERA Correctional Plan in with all of the rest and give us only an annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) floor of 1% with a ceiling of 1.5% based on inflation. AFSCME called it "shared sacrifice." Teamsters and even LELS signed off on it. Willing to weaken the PERA Correctional Plan!

After Tom Perkins of MNPEA and myself met with PERA Executive Director Doug Anderson and the PERA Board, they recommended to the legislature that our PERA Correctional Plan have a floor of 1% with a ceiling of 2.5% based on inflation.

While I would prefer no change to our annual COLA of 2.5%, if change is going to come, at least we will maintain a COLA of 2.5% in times of inflation.

The new bills reflect that. Thank you Doug Anderson, PERA Board and legislatures.
Special thanks to Rep. Abigail Whelan for meeting with me early on and contacting the Bill's authors.