Friday, May 23rd, 2008

On May 20, 2008, NEPBA Legislative Director Paul Larkham and Lobyist Russ Taylor, attended the 1^st public hearing held at the Executive Office of Transportation in regards to establishing regulations for using police details for public works projects.

The regulation and guidelines to be established are part of the Police Details bill filed and inserted as Section 10 in Chapter 86 of the Acts of 2008.

The NEPBA is in the process of completing written testimony to be submitted prior to the 2^nd (Public Hearing) scheduled for June 25, 2008.

For the most part we can report that the first hearing was more of David Tuerck, Ph.D, from the Beacon Hill Institute trying to encourage the Legislature to enact laws that would allow public entities to bypass collective bargaining agreements, ignore prevailing wage standards and hire anyone for just over minimum wage to provide safety and security at construction details. His testimony did get a little interesting, especially when he said that if Officers working paid details seemed to be in the right places to respond to crimes and incidents, maybe we should hire more police officers to work instead of trying to hide the costs under the cost for construction.  This is amazing, here he is writing and testifying, to anyone who will listen, that we should stop police details because they cost too much for the taxpayers, and at the same time he suggests the need for more police to work our streets. 

The testimony given included numerous police officials who reiterated the benefits of police officers working these details, and that because of prevailing wages there is little or no cost savings.

As we said, NEPBA will be submitting written testimony to be submitted to the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT). A copy of the written testimony will be forwarded to all locals. We will continue to closely monitor any proposed regulation on this matter.

The timetable set forth at EOT is for any guidelines or regulations to be completed by July 15, 2008.