AZCOPS Legal responds to passage
of legislation authorizing prison privatization
(Posted: Sept. 12, 2009)
Editor's Note: Last week, the Governor signed into law HB 2010 -- the budget bill authorizing privatization of corrections. What follows is AZCOPS' response.
By Martin Bihn
AZCOPS General Counsel
As many of you know, AZCOPS worked long and hard to defeat HB 2010. Leaders from a number of our member groups including AZCPOA, AZPOA, TPOA, and CLASA attacked this bill from the outset, and repeatedly met with the Governor, her staff, and key legislators.
We also had an outstanding response to the AZCOPS email Legislative Alerts and Call to Action. Our members flooded the Governor's Office and legislators with emails and telephone calls opposing privatization
We were promised by the Governor, her staff, and the legislators that privatization would not pass. And we were initially successful. Our combined hard work led the Governor to veto this bill when it was first submitted to her in July.
We did not take our foot off the pedal. We continued to oppose privatization at the Legislature as it reworked the budget and we made our position clear to the Governor. When HB2010 hit her desk the second time, she signed it into law.
Now we know the true colors of the Governor and the Legislature. Their message came through loud and clear -- they do not support law enforcement. They are now going to find out that law enforcement no longer supports them.
ABOUT THE PRIVATIZATION BILL
The privatization bill has three parts that impact corrections:
(A) All health positions in corrections, to include every medical and dental provider, will be privatized in 2010.
(B) Sale and lease purchase of all state buildings. Every building owned by the State (including all prisons) will be sold and then leased back to the State.
(C) All prison operations, with the exception of the Yuma prison, will be privatized.
ANALYSIS
We have heard rumblings about (A). The upside here is that the language of the statute will require the successful bidder to charge no more than what ADC paid for medical in 2007-2008. If we are correct, ADC has at least 2,500 more inmates now and medical costs have skyrocketed. It may be very difficult for a private bidder to meet this requirement, but we are going to fight this.
We all knew about (B) and AZCOPS has no heartburn with sale/lease purchase because it has little impact on our people as many if not most State buildings have already been sold to balance past budgets.
We were assured by the Governor and Republican leaders that privatization (C) would not occur, but here it is. We must promise and deliver retribution for this one.
PLAN
We all know that privatization was enacted based on ideology rather than on sound economic reasoning. Not one of our esteemed legislators has thought through its costs and benefits. We all know what happened the last time the Legislature and Governor enacted a "sweetheart" bill for their friends -- it was called "Alt Fuels" and it nearly cost the State hundreds of millions of dollars. This Governor's "privatization plan" will be a giveaway of epic proportions and it will make the "Alt Fuels" fiasco look like a walk in the park. Good thing AZCOPS is here to put an end to this lunacy.
AZCOPS LEADERSHIP
As news of the bill broke last week, AZCOPS President Larry A. Lopez was already meeting with state legislative leaders in Tucson and taking them to task. AZCOPS leadership has brought its anger over this issue to bear on the Governor and key legislators who supported the bill. This will continue unabated.
The Governor and key legislators are going to feel our leadership's disgust and disapproval daily. The message is that they oppose law enforcement and public safety and will hear this in their offices, in their districts, and most importantly, on the campaign trail. And this is the beginning point of the AZCOPS response to privatization.
AZCOPS LEGAL
We also have a plan on the legal side to put the brakes on privatization. The bill requires specific deadlines and specific actions from the Department of Corrections and Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Additionally, a winning bidder must be able to generate at least $100,000,000 for the State.
From a purely legal standpoint, we can and will hound them at every step. We will obtain the ADOA and ADC materials used to prepare the Requests for Proposal ("RFP") and will challenge their sufficiency to meet the $100,000,000 requirement in court. If the RPS' survive, we will then challenge the submitted bids in court on the same grounds. Thereafter, AZCOPS will bring lawsuits to force the State and Privatizers to actually prove that any concession agreements comply with the state laws and will generate the required income.
Our point is this: we are not going to sit by while the Governor and her pals in the Capitol give a massive government handout to their privatizer buddies. We will make this a long and painful process. Basically, we will not let them just issue an RFP and slip a contract to a privatizer buddy. We will step in at every stage, shine a bright light on the process, and challenge every ruling. We object, object, appeal and fight. We might be able to stop the process in its tracks. But, at a minimum we can derail this long enough to dissuade privatizers or until we can get to the election. And that is where the third part of the AZCOPS plan comes into play.
AZCOPS MEMBERS
We are mobilizing our political base for the 2010 elections. We have significant numbers of members in each and every legislative district in the State. And the good news is that we don't have to change too many faces to put an end to privatization. We have divided up the legislative districts and have targeted specific races. We are organizing our members in key districts across the state. We are hunting for viable candidates for some races. In others, we will make a dramatic impact with contributions to candidates who share our distaste for privatization.
We have money in association political action committees (PACs) throughout the State. Stay tuned, and expect independent expenditures, such as attack ads on radio, billboards and direct mail. You know that the legislators who backed privatization are not going to enjoy being publicly called out as anti-law enforcement and anti-public safety liars!
Just understand that we at AZCOPS are going to have to kill privatization ourselves. AZCOPS is the only police labor group bold enough to take on this issue, fight it out and now plan for a counter attack.
FOP was in the Legislature, stood by and watched this train wreck happen without objecting. FOP's response to privatization is even more infuriating -- it promises to simply "keep us updated" as the RFP process unfolds. FOP even applauds the privatization of the corrections health workers as a "cost saving measure." Almost all of the health workers are AZCOPS members and we will save their jobs as well.
The other corrections labor group was even worse. Its sole effort on this issue was to get its president's grinning face in a picture with Senator Pearce -- the architect and prime sponsor of the privatization bill. And their lame response to privatization was a call to their members to "register to vote." With this track record you have to wonder whether this group is actually in bed with the privatizers!
Just so each of you understands, it is very clear to all of us that the AZCOPS leadership lobbying and legal strategy are just parts of the fight. All AZCOPS members must work hand in hand to engage the politicians, identify friends and target our enemies.
This situation is no longer "serious," it is now damn critical, so we all need to dig deep and fight. Anyone not stepping up now needs to get out of the way.
So in the near future when you get your notice of a local AZCOPS Anti-Privatization meeting, we need you to come out, join us and get in the fight in your area.
Understand, this is no longer a situation where anyone can sit by, do nothing and think this will get better itself. You think that way and you can start imagining being unemployed while some idiot does your job at half your pay.