Latest / Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement / #133- "A Tyrant Falls and Officers Rise" with Leighton Guarnere

Transcript

#133- "A Tyrant Falls and Officers Rise" with Leighton Guarnere · Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because the mayor basically was was doing a solo mission by himself.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and I mean a lot of people would call it dictatorship is is basically what it came down to.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was he was uh not allowing citizens to talk at city council meetings.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the whole nine yards, anything negative towards him or you know, bringing up issues, he silenced them at city council meeting.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back, viewers, watchers, listeners.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Tyler Owen.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: We are remote today, as we are all in TNPA preparing for the 2026 TNPA Texas FOP conference there in Dallas, July 24th to the 26th.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh in my conversations today, I was speaking with one of our field reps, Layton Ganary, down in the Houston area, and uh decided we're gonna pop on.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's been a lot of stuff going on there in the Houston area with the news of the recent Texas City election uh and some of the success coming out of there.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna touch on that.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then he's got some referendums of uh that Leighton's been working on.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of wanted to touch base with him and you know, give an explanation.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, me being from East Texas and in deep east Texas, near Shreeport, Louisiana, in the Tyler area.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, um, I've not not had that many, you know, much experience with referendums.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so for our members out there that you know may have a possibility that they're interested in something like that, Leighton's gonna kind of cover uh the start to finish of how that how that started.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So without further ado, Leighton, how the hell are you doing, man?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I'm doing great, Tyler.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: How about you?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Good, man.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: You uh you taking care of them grandbabies?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, keeping me busy.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Leighton uh has recently become a grandfather to two within I think six months.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh, man, it's a it's a it's a good time, I'm sure, to be a granddad and also work for TNPA, but he's also busy with other stuff.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I guess let's dive off into first man.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about conference real quick.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's important for different perspectives of what your first conference was like, how you see it's important for our members to attend those, and kind of what benefit do you feel like some of our members get by attending our annual conference?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I've been to I think 17 conferences uh since I've been working at TMPA.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll tell you whenever I was a full-time officer on the streets, I didn't I didn't realize the importance of you know conferences, stuff like that.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, if you're you're you're an officer out there, and especially if you're on a board of a local association or wanting to get involved in stuff like that, uh it is very important that you go to our conference because there's a lot of networking that goes on.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, even even you know, they talk about issues that they may have be going on, and you can bounce it off each other and help each other out, plus exchange contact information, stuff like that.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's a huge deal.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, you get to know the employees of TMPA and actually the behind the scenes how it operates.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know what's funny, Clint always brings this up, is that you can come to our conference and you can you can have conversations with with men and women that are that are in that conference world that that represent agencies from you know 10 all the way to Doug Griffith, who represents HPOU and you know those guys.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really important for the networking aspect for our members to show up and also see kind of how the how the bread is made.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um historically, TNPA is was started and founded with with the beginning of the conferences, and that's kind of where the elections take place and where our board of directors they meet once a year and they're elected.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And those uh 18 peace officers, full-time peace officers, are kind of the ones that direct where this organization goes and kind of where we finish.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's good for our members, uh, really people who we serve, get to see kind of how the bread is made in that sense.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so, again, we encourage everybody, if you have not ever been, our our conferences have always been family friendly, but I think we've done a really good job of navigating through some of the different challenges as as we've grown to kind of focus in on we want families to come uh and be more of a family reunion.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: You and I had that conversation last time is is you've got two boys, uh, well, three boys, and and they have all had their conference attendant, you know, attendances there.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when they show up, they see kids that, you know, their their dads were past presidents or their parents were, you know, field reps or are field reps.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know Tony Reich's got you know some children and and as well as other field reps too, but it's pretty cool.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's turned into a family reunion, at least from my my perspective, me going since 2017.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I I I agree with you 100%.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest with you.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have guys that show up almost every year ever since I've been working at TMPA that I've got to know, you know, know real well, came close with, were family friends with.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and like you said, the wives get to meet each other.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: They, you know, that yeah, the purse bingo that goes on, a couple other things that involve the wives.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the kids, uh, especially the younger ones, are usually out playing together and stuff like that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it truly is a family atmosphere.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it is.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And this year is going to be kind of different.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, every two years, TMPA for the last what, what latent, probably six years.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: For the every two years, we and uh TMPA and Texas FOP have a joint conference.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so are are we standardized?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Probably around, I don't know, last time it was six to seven hundred attendees with when you include spouses and children involved.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a really cool opportunity for you to come network, be a part of the conversations that that need to be had.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it's a summer getaway.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this year, again, it'll be in Dallas there at the reunion arena, uh Reunion Tower uh at the Hyatt downtown.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be a good time.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Again, if you want to go ahead and check that out at conference, visit tmpa.org and register you and your family.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's uh there's a reasonable price, I think, for spouses and kids.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so take take advantage of those and and we look forward to seeing you guys there.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So moving on, you and I had a conversation.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Man, it's been probably a year ago.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: I remember it clear as day.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I was standing by a river on a Friday afternoon around 5:30.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, like a lot of our association leadership does, we got we both got a phone call.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that phone call was from leadership within Texas City Municipal Police Association, and it was just talking about poor leadership, uh retaliatory leadership within the association, and it all kind of continued to point uh to a specific person, and that being the mayor uh of Texas City.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes, I'll I'll Layton, you can pick this up whenever you want to.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: The most difficult part about being a Philip representative is sometimes explaining situations to our members that we want to help and we want to solve your problems.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: But the reality is that sometimes we just can't.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: We can't immediately solve a problem.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: So the advice you gave them that day was that we need to do everything we can to get somebody elected in Texas City that is pro-law enforcement and support the men and women of the Texas Municipal Police Association.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what just happened last week.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about the uh the plan of action and kind of talk about the execution, but talk about kind of the relief you being a part of that election process and seeing kind of how it all played out.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if I get too lengthy, let me know.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this is something I'm pretty passionate about because that's one of our main job functions as a field rep is when a fire happens at a at a city.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and the POA or even places that don't have a POA, uh, officers reach out to us and say, hey, here's the problem.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, what can we do?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: What can y'all do?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the first things that I say is, look, uh I don't have a magic wand.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: No other police organization has a magic wand.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: It all starts at the local level.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so we go through basically, you know, their political capital within their city or their county, uh, and discuss some things.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when this came up, it was actually almost two years ago, believe it or not, it's been been a while.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'll never forget because I went through a summer of like three different presidents, like in a short period of time at Texas City.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew there was a problem before we like dove deep into it.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and when Rachel took over as president, Rachel Sparr took over as president there, uh, we began having phone conversations and meetings between me and her, and then sometimes me, her, and the board, me, her, and attorneys, and we started coming up with a game plan of what we can do to try to fix the culture at Texas City.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Texas City is a mayor strong uh form of government, which makes it very difficult because you you you can't have uh you know city council putting pressure on a city manager.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is a person that was elected and they're there for two years.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so we started out.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you want me to go through the timeline or something, yeah, for sure.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: We think it's important.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So what we did was we we did a management survey.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and management surveys are usually kind of a last ditch effort type of deal to try to fix things.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so what we did was we got everybody's email within the city uh uh that worked for the police department from the chief on down, and I sent out emails to each person.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think at the time they were around 81 is is how many we sent out, and we had 67 um actually take the survey out of the 81, 82 that I sent.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So a pretty high number.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so when all when all those results came back, it was all done over SurveyMonkey.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there was no way for somebody to take it more than once.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Each person had one opportunity to to take the survey.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so it's it's very good uh way that we do it uh to where it can't be manipulated or anything like that.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then the results are the results.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we put it together, come up with a packet, and I brought it to the POA.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: We discussed, and I told them that the first thing that we need to do is we need to bring it to the chief of police.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because we feel like if there's an issue with the chief or anybody in the administration, it needs to go to the chief first to where he's aware and can't say that he wasn't aware of you know a situation or issues at the department.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I drove all the way to Texas City uh from Chambers County, and as I was getting out of my car in the parking lot, I got a phone call, and the chief said he wasn't gonna meet with me.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that was pretty disheartening.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I left there and I went straight to City Hall uh to give it, uh give a copy to the mayor.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the mayor refused to to answer, you know.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I got there and they were like, he's not available.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, here's my card.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh please let him uh give me a call.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: He never called me back.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I called several times up there, left messages.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: He would never acknowledge me at all.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so then you fast forward, we we when when the mayor or the chief wouldn't meet with this, we brought it to city council, and that was when everything kind of exploded.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I got up and spoke to city council with with the survey, the management survey, and the mayor uh blatantly in front of me told me that he's not gonna recognize it and he doesn't want to see it.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so after that we had to uh basically you know reevaluate everything that was gonna go on.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, there was it started getting traction, and some civilians stepped up and said they wanted to do a uh a petition.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um try to do a petition to try to recall the mayor.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, recall the mayor.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And um the the citizens that did that, uh there was some miscommunication with the city or what have you, and then the city comes back and says, Well, you don't have enough votes to do the recall, and that went away.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um in the meantime, I was doing open records request and running into brick wall with the city uh secretary there.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you've been watching and following along with Texas City, it's the same thing that the Wayne Daltrafino uh consulting firm ran into where basically she wasn't getting anything for you, putting it off.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of the open records requests that I did, uh she sent back it would cost 20,$22,000.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, something ridiculous.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so all this rocked along for the last couple of years.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, I don't want to really get into her personal business, but you know, Rachel being the president the entire time, never backed down, kept moving forward, uh in the fire the whole time.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't even know how many internal affairs investigations that they threw on her trying to get her to leave, uh, things like that.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was blatant retaliation.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we kept rocking along, rocking along.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, it came time for election time, and then that's when the flames were turned up.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and I and I I kind of want to point this out.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we we can look at different associate local associations.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: For whatever reason, we had never even we've still to this day have not communicated with uh that Del Fergino uh media pronounce it for me, Wayne Del Fergino.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Dosafino, we we we we it was just kind of by coincidence that he took it upon himself to kind of you know dive off into this because I think he saw the need too, and he saw the you know the criticism uh from the public and probably criticism from us.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: But what I want to point out is really I think it's important to point out that, like, for example, Galveston Municipal Police Association, you know, Anthony Rogers and his guys, in conjunction with TMPA, the constant social media push outs, you know, for the members out there that are any type of leadership or have any type of involvement with social media or communications, I think it's important to note that you can't prepare uh to go to war when it's calm.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so for those people out there, that that became instrumental, I believe, in kind of overturning this election moving forward because you had all these associations that band together and united.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And they band together with us.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And let's just, let's just say this too.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't give a shit what association you're affiliated with.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna work towards the common mission of what we're trying to accomplish, man, let's go.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Let's link arms and let's stand together and be unified on this.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what happened with this Texas City mayor.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was cool to watch you interact as a field rep with their local POA president.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then in conjunction with you and I working together, and so you kind of had all these facets in place.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then we stand before you, you know, we stand here today saying that, hey, this worked.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it worked for the betterment of the citizens of Texas City because when you have a weak police department, it's not good for the citizens.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the retaliatory things that we saw coming out of Texas City, I can't speak on any civil lawsuits moving forward.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I would guess that there would be some probably civil lawsuits that would be eligible uh for the retaliatory behavior that was at least displayed from the police administration and damn sure the city administration uh from DeRick Johnson towards the POA leadership.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I'm not gonna speak on that right now, but uh, going back to what you were talking about, the different associations and and uh you know it kind of goes back to the conference.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of a lot of these friendships were or started at the conference, and you're right.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: We we have a group of us, we all talk all the time at all these different cities, the the the POA leaderships, uh as well as me.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have we have text threads and stuff like that amongst all of us.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they did.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: They they came in and supported Rachel in Texas City, supported the vision of TMPA of what we were trying to do.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and I mean my hat's off to Rachel for staying in the fire, but also of getting the citizens to come together.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you something.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: When when they gave uh they had a candidate for them that they put on Texas City POA did, and they invited everybody.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, you know, the the mayor that was the current mayor at the time didn't show up, and I think one other city councilman didn't show up, but everybody else did show up, even the ones that were currently on the board.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and they they outright spoke there.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: They they felt like the the councilman, the the current sitting councilman felt like they didn't even have a voice uh because the mayor basically was doing a solo mission by himself.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and I mean a lot of people would call it dictatorship is is basically what it came down to.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was he was uh not allowing citizens to talk at city council meetings.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the whole nine yards, anything negative towards him or you know, bringing up issues, he silenced them at city city council meeting.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And right before right before this election was some wild stuff where some a couple of officers within the department uh got a petition and got all the young guys that were fresh, freshly hired, and you know, they don't want to overstep any boundaries or or speak up or nothing like that, got them to sign this petition uh led by another uh statewide uh organization and brought it to the city, and the city, you know, said that they were gonna allow them to do the bargaining, which uh if you ask today, uh the overwhelming majority would say the original Texas City Um you know Police Association is the is the or municipal police association is is is the you know go to.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: They that they're the ones that's been around for decades, you know what I mean?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh anyways, from that, everybody that Texas City uh uh police association uh backed won the election and overwhelmingly.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I mean I think it was close to like I don't know, 67% for Abel Garza, which is who who they ran for mayor, and he's he's a current uh uh city councilman.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's been around for a long time.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: He knows the city, uh, he knows you know, all the people in and out uh that work for the city.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and he says that he has a plan to flip Texas City to go back to how it used to be as far as uh employees were happy to go to work.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't in fear of losing their job and stuff like that.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see where that goes.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's there's gonna be some more uh uh bombs going off in Texas City in the near future where you're gonna see some uh things happening over there uh that we can't talk about.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I think now Texas City is going in the right direction and hopefully we can put all this in the past.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do know the mayor left them with about a uh, I may be wrong,$75 million or$80 million new city hall um that he basically didn't go to the voters or anything for.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he he left the city with a tab of about$75,$80 million on building a new city hall that the citizens didn't have a voice on.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, to your point, yeah, there is going to be some stuff coming out, and we're not gonna discuss it on the podcast just for just for obvious reasons.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I will say this is that, you know, people can go to marriage counseling and and people can seek counseling on different aspects.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: But when the marriage is done and and divorce is final and divorce is near, and that's kind of the only option, I think that's where we're at.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's certain things that took place during this time frame that I don't think anybody would want to work under or continue working with, and that's kind of where we're at with Texas City.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: So again, well, and hey, we we tried to work with the city.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't like we were coming in there to cause an issue.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: We it it's easier on us if we go in and and and be diplomatic about it and get those side get something done where both sides are happy and agree to it, and everybody goes on down the down the road and and and there's no other issue.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want people thinking that like we came in to cause big problems or anything like that.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: We came in to try to put a put a fire out, and the fire kept on getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and you know, the city refused to to work with us.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I think you you said this in a in a meeting that you and I were a part of in a Zoom meeting, preparing for the Texas City election, is that you know we can fight a war, and and we don't want to go to war.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's not our objective anytime we do any of these management surveys, but you know, we're happy to go there if that's where you want to take it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's exactly what happened in Texas City is that they took it there and uh ultimately we we we're kind of better at it, right?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the divorce is final and it you know, thank you for your service, but it's time for you to go.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so the citizens of Texas City spoke, and we're thankful for that, and we're thankful for new leadership coming in.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: So our hearts and thoughts, our thoughts and prayers continue over Texas City Municipal Police uh police association.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're looking forward for the future and to where those men and women can continue just to serve the citizens that that they love to serve.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: So while all that was going on, you also had a referendum going on at another city, uh a little bit closer to you, so it wasn't as far of a drive.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it's important to kind of talk about the referendums and kind of how they started, what you did to advocate for those, and what you did to complete those, because that also passed, I believe, the same night uh that the Texas City elections came in.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yes, we ran a uh collective bargaining referendum at Morgan's Point.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very small town uh just next to Laporte.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's a city of About 300 people and they got like a five-man police force.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh to give a little background on that, on that deal was um there was a city administrator uh that worked there.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now the city administrator for that small of a town was making about$370,000 a year, which is insane.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but they do take in part of uh Port of Houston, and that's where they get a lot of their money, or almost all their money is from the Port of Houston.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the city administrator, along with the elected mayor and a couple councilmen, uh, wanted to look at doing away with the police department and uh having LaPorte take over police services in the city.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that would have put five of our members out of work.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so we came in and talked and discussed things and got a game plan together and started having meetings with citizens within the city, um, explaining ways of you know keeping the police department and also in the future what they could do to protect these guys to where they can't just not because of neglect or or not or politics, uh what they could do to try to protect them a little bit.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we discussed all that, explained the differences in uh civil service, meet and confer, collective bargaining.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that that Morgan's point uh would fall into would be collective bargaining because of their size uh of their city.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: So they couldn't have meet and confer or uh civil service.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing they could have is collective bargaining.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I I did a uh meeting with the citizens, invited the citizens of the city, and it was it was jam-packed, and uh uh did an overview of it and then did a uh QA with the citizens and uh got them informed.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's the thing is getting the citizens informed of what this stuff is and uh the importance of it.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So the citizens jumped right in.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: They love their police department down there.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, one of the this is crazy, one of the one of the biggest supporters and more vocal uh people down there was uh he told me he's a uh ex-president of the Texas Bandito Motorcycle Club.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Which is crazy.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um but anyways, uh the citizens banded together, they did a uh a uh petition on the city manager to get rid of them, gave it to city council, put enough heat on city council and the mayor to where they ended up terminating the city administrator.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that made an opening for city administrator.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think the citizens basically told the city what route they wanted to go.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted a police-friendly city administrator.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have very many city employees, you know.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: After the police department, I think they may have two guys in the street department, you know, a city uh secretary, not not very many, probably less than uh 10 or 12 city employees.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, anyways, uh so there were citizens that stepped up that wanted to run for city council, wanted to run for mayor.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we backed them.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um we did block walking, even though it was a small, a small city, the citizens in the POA came together and block walk.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: They they had signs made, they had hats, shirts made, the whole nine yards.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because there's a certain percentage that you have to have of the voter population.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just like an election where you know if if 200 people vote and whoever gets the majority, you have to have a certain percentage, right?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so they got they got the petition, they got the the right amount of uh signatures.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I hand delivered the signature the petition signature page along with the citizen that gathered uh the the signatures to the uh city secretary.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, once you do that, they're forced, they have to put it on the ballot.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: State law have to put it on the ballot.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: So uh then all the hard work started.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like I said, they got signs, hats, all that stuff made.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: We had a couple more meetings with with the citizens um to make sure everybody's on the same page.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it it ended up, uh, they ended up getting collective bargain.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: We won uh 74%, which is a pretty pretty good percentage.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think the only ones that voted against it were probably in the group with like the mayor and stuff like that.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: The mayor got beat.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so our our person got mayor, and a couple city council members uh were replaced as well, which is our people.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So now they're 100% pro-law enforcement, mayor, city council.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh this summer will start their very first collective bargaining.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and you know what's cool about that, Leighton, is the fact that you know, other statewide associations, the cool thing about TMPA is we're committed to the mission.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the mission is that we don't care what size department or association you have.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: You could be a two-man department, five-man department, or a 5,000.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the cool thing about it is is we we've all been cops.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Every field rep you see uh through our social media platforms that you've seen on the podcast or heard on the podcast or see on our website, we have lived in the shoes of being a law enforcement officer.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the true passion that each one of us share as employees of TNPA.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and the cool thing is is seeing success stories just like this, where a small agency that really needs help is supported uh by the communities, but it's facilitated by TNPA.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the cool thing that I I love interacting with you guys and kind of getting to see what you guys do out in the field.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's remarkable really just how how how devoted and and how experienced our field representatives are uh with different aspects.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a really good success story.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, for those out there that are interested in getting getting something like this done, man, reach out to us.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Our field reps are kind of regionalized.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Leighton's there in the Houston area and butts up to our good friend Robbie Campbell over in the Beaumont area, and then Robbie goes all the way up to uh damn near Tyler, and so does Leighton.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: So each one field rep's got a region that they take care of, and they do they they do it flawlessly.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: But if you've got any questions and your department may need collective bargaining or some kind of referendum or just some kind of protection, we can walk you through those processes, and we don't care what statewide association affiliation you have, as long as your association is 50% and you're TMPA, then we're gonna help you out.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And if not, we're still gonna give you the same advice.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what's cool about TMPA.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one thing I'd like to add, because it's the the most important thing of this whole conversation meaning you're having is police associations or places that even doesn't have police associations.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you need to get involved in the local politics and elections uh of your city or your county because it matters, it affects all the officers.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you have to remember, I mean, the you know, like at a city uh as well as a county, uh, those people that are on that commission board or uh uh council, uh they're the ones that set the rules, the regulations, uh you know, tax rates, all this stuff.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you gotta remember when you're talking about pay raises, stuff like that, there's there's a pie.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And depending on what they come up with is how much you get of that pie.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: You see what I'm saying?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: If they don't know your name, they don't know you at all, you're probably gonna get a little bit lesser of that pie uh than if you've made yourself available to them and have a uh somewhat of a working relationship with your local uh elected uh people.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: So Well, and just like I think Clint McNear says in the past is that if you know the cops are notorious for saying I don't do politics, I I'm I'm not gonna get involved in politics.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, the old saying goes is either you can have a seat and and you can have a fork and spoon in your hand or you can be the one on the platter, and and that's the reality to it, right?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so to your point, you've got to stay involved with politics within a reason.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: We don't want any members out there that aren't part of a local association dabbling in things that are gonna get them, you know, I ate or in trouble.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: But to your point, you've got to stay engaged with politics and be informed and see what city council is doing.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: I guarantee you, probably 70% of our 35,000 members of Texas Law Enforcement probably rarely even look at the city agenda.
• 30:30
  unknown: Yeah.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's just that's just a fact.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, even I mean, even the the basic of it is you should know your you should know your uh city council members' names, city manager's names, mayor's name, and they should know yours.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's at the very very least.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's not that's not really getting in involved as far as getting in trouble or nothing like that, but that they need to see you guys out of uniform as a regular person to where they can put two and two together that, hey, I'm just like you that's on city council, or you know, we're we're regular people, we just have a job we do, and things like that.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and that goes a long way.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it does.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be standoffish towards all of them and not know them and then call and complain to us that you know you're not getting anything or not getting raises and everything else.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and and to and to your point too is for us to get involved.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: Don't call us in the ninth inning and say, hey, uh, you know, city council is voting on a budget next week.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: We need you guys to come here and save the day.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be happy to get involved.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: But those discussions need to have nine months, eight months, ten months before that budget hearing or before salaries are discussed.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so I say that for this reason is that give us a call, let us be informed, let us be aware, and let us be involved because we'll be happy to.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: If I mean if if you don't know where to start or what to do or whatever, give us a call, we can run it down to you and and go from there.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like most of us has had a lot of experience in this stuff.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I know I've been in it for, you know, I've been at TMPA 16 and a half years, but I've been involved in it for almost 30.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Robbie has vast experience.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: All of our field reps have experience in doing this stuff, uh, referendums, things like that.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: So just give us a call and uh we can help lead you in the right direction and then assist you on whatever whatever your goal is.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, for sure.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, man, you got anything else for us?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's about it.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: I just right now um me and Robbie is just going, you know, it's it's it's that time of the year for bargaining stuff like that.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we got some new bargaining groups that are about to come on.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to speak too much on it because it's not a done deal.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but in the Houston area, I think you're gonna see some guys getting some some pretty pretty good pay raises in the Houston area.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I know Robbie just TA'd on one that's really good over in the Golden Triangle area.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um so look, we're just doing our part out here trying to help people out, trying trying to make it a little bit better, you know, for you.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, like I said, if if anybody has any questions, just hit us up and uh we'll try to help you as best we can.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that number is 1-800-848-2088, is our 1-800 number for TMPA.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: And also you can just drop us, you know, an email at legalcalls at tmpa.org or fillbreps at tmpa.org, and we'll be happy to assist you.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Man, Leighton, I can't thank you enough, brother.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's always good seeing you, even though we're on Zoom.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're this is going to be a podcast audio only.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, hope to see you soon.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: We and Leighton, if you want to be a part of the conference, if you want to come hang out with Leighton Ganary and Tyler Owen, myself at the conference, we'd love to see you, love to have you.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, get on tmpa.org, register you and your family, and y'all come to the conference July 24th and 20s through the 26th, and you'll get to hang out with Philad Reps just like Leighton.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: So again, Leighton, I appreciate you, appreciate all the work you do.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I guess the last thing we got to say is you guys take care.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: God bless you, and as always, may God bless Texas.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: We're out of the way.