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State’s Top Cop Takes Back Seat in New Mexico Merger
For years CWA Local 7911 President Mike Williams assisted, advised and courted the Rio Rancho (N.M.) Department of Public Safety Association. Now ecstatic over the association’s Sept. 20 vote to affiliate with his statewide local, the New Mexico Coalition of Public Safety Officers, Williams finds he has to abstain from any direct involvement in negotiating or approving their next contract: Williams in March won election as a Rio Rancho City Councilor.
Williams said the 114 police officers, firefighters and dispatchers who just became members of his local will have John Burpo, director of CWA’s National Coalition of Public Safety Officers, as their chief negotiator.
Williams, a deputy sheriff, lives in Rio Rancho and has been a friendly resource for the DPSA for about eight years, helping the association get organized and offering advice when they bargained. He has addressed their membership meetings three times in the last four years, the most recent followed by their vote to join CWA.
DPSA President Arlen Norby said another factor that convinced his members to choose CWA was the availability of the local’s attorney, who lives two blocks from Norby’s home.
“We’ve recently had two incidents with officers that involved fatalities,” Norby said. “He was on the scene within 20 minutes both times. When the attorney’s there, standing with our members during initial questioning, that makes a big impression.”
Norby said the DPSA is facing tough negotiations with the city in November for a two-year contract. His members are looking for pay raises that will give them parity with their counterparts in other cities, more uniform policies for promotion, protection of overtime pay and other improvements.
“We feel great about the affiliation,” Norby said. “We felt we had to get involved with a larger organization, and Burpo’s been super helpful.”
The affiliation brings Local 7911’s membership to about 500, including the Farmington Police Department, Sheriff’s Departments in Santa Fe, Bernalillo and Sandoval Counties, Ottero County Jailers and Sheriffs, and the Alamagordo Department of Public Safety.
Williams said the 114 police officers, firefighters and dispatchers who just became members of his local will have John Burpo, director of CWA’s National Coalition of Public Safety Officers, as their chief negotiator.
Williams, a deputy sheriff, lives in Rio Rancho and has been a friendly resource for the DPSA for about eight years, helping the association get organized and offering advice when they bargained. He has addressed their membership meetings three times in the last four years, the most recent followed by their vote to join CWA.
DPSA President Arlen Norby said another factor that convinced his members to choose CWA was the availability of the local’s attorney, who lives two blocks from Norby’s home.
“We’ve recently had two incidents with officers that involved fatalities,” Norby said. “He was on the scene within 20 minutes both times. When the attorney’s there, standing with our members during initial questioning, that makes a big impression.”
Norby said the DPSA is facing tough negotiations with the city in November for a two-year contract. His members are looking for pay raises that will give them parity with their counterparts in other cities, more uniform policies for promotion, protection of overtime pay and other improvements.
“We feel great about the affiliation,” Norby said. “We felt we had to get involved with a larger organization, and Burpo’s been super helpful.”
The affiliation brings Local 7911’s membership to about 500, including the Farmington Police Department, Sheriff’s Departments in Santa Fe, Bernalillo and Sandoval Counties, Ottero County Jailers and Sheriffs, and the Alamagordo Department of Public Safety.