POA President Speaks at District Board Meeting

On February 8th, the Midpeninsula Rangers POA President spoke at the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s Board meeting during public comments. His statement is found below:

I want to express my appreciation for the ride-alongs, meetings, and discussions that the Board and staff have had over the last five months to understand the concerns of the association. Those continued concerns being to improve District Rangers’ retirement benefits because of the hazards we face working in the preserves, based our job duties as peace officers, fire fighters, and first responders.

We expect to begin the negotiations process with the District on February 15, with the goal of getting to a signed contract to replace the imposed Terms of Employment that expire on June 30.

I want to share a perspective I have about how the last negotiations process concluded.

The association put forward a proposal for public safety benefits that the District had no interest in discussing. That approach did not allow for the back and forth negotiations process about those concerns to take place.

That and the replacement of binding arbitration with an administrative law judge were the primary reasons that we declared an impasse, and the last negotiations process concluded in imposition.

We plan to meet and confer in good faith. We don’t want to be at an impasse again. Thank you for your consideration of this matter.