Fellow Members,

During the past few months, I have been bombarded by membership complaints regarding our union standing with I.U.P.A. "International Unions of Police" and our AFL-CIO affiliation. I have also been called upon to answer membership questions regarding allegations made by our former General Counsel that our organization is misappropriating funds earmarked for legal expenses, i.e. "Legal Plus." Due to advice by the new HCDO legal team, members of the Board of Directors have sat idly by and allowed these atrocious verbal assaults and acts of deliberate union–busting to occur against our good name, our organization and our reputation without challenging the authenticity of these deceitful allegations.

Well, enough is enough! I will not lower myself to speak ill of our former General Counsel; in fact I will mention the opposite. Mr. Burt Springer gave our local #154 five (5) years of service of which he was compensated very generously. He and his staff, attorney Fred Keys and legal assistant Ms. Denise Strybos handled numerous lawsuits of great importance to our organization and remarkably, dealt with hundreds of grievances and employee appeals with the utmost professionalism and work ethic and I, for one, thank them. But in the end, it was not poor or lack of performance, but a change in the 2003-2004 Board of Directors who felt that our legal services needed a different approach and that greater control was warranted over its legal staff. Therefore, the Board opted not to renew legal services with Mr. Burt Springer; thereby ending a long-standing attorney-client relationship.

With this said, I would like now to address the above-mentioned allegations. First and foremost, we the Harris County Deputies Organization Local #154 are in good standing with IUPA and all dues per capita are being paid. All members in good standing of HCDO are entitled to full membership services and benefits provided through our national affiliation with IUPA and you can take that to the bank.

Regarding the Legal Plus Program and the monies allegedly misappropriated; the "Legal Plus Program" was a pre-paid legal service offered by our former general counsel and endorsed by HCDO. Monies paid by members for this additional service were collected through payroll deduction by HCDO and paid monthly to Mr. Burt Springer. Upon the decision to not renew the legal contract with Mr. Burt Springer, the legal plus program became a nullified service, no longer offered by HCDO. Members who continued to pay for this service were asked to come by the office and sign new payroll deduction forms deleting that expense from their dues structure. Or, the members had the option to join the new "Preferred Legal Program" being offered by the new legal staff and which had the endorsement of the HCDO Board of Directors. It must also be noted that several membership mailings were conducted at a great expense to the HCDO notifying members of this new service. Members were told that all monies currently being received for the former legal plus would be returned to the individual members. As a matter of fact, all monies collected for this program were placed in a separate non-interest bearing account and earmarked solely for that purpose. Not one dime of this money…I repeat not one dime of this money has been spent on general expenses of the HCDO. All monies are currently being dispersed to members and therefore, no misappropriations of funds have occurred. I will challenge anyone to prove otherwise.

In conclusion, I wish to express sincere thanks for all the members who serve on various HCDO committees. Without your assistance and cooperation on these committees the HCDO would not be the organization that it is. As always Ask Questions? Get Involved! And Demand Answers.