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By Gary Blankinship
We thought we had put sufficient safeguards in place to prevent past occurrences from raising their ugly head again. Unfortunately, we missed an issue which left the door cracked for a board member to stick his hand through.
The Union has a special account called the Ways and Means account. This account is funded by telephone solicitations from businesses and donations from the community.
The Ways and Means account was handled by a board member who interacted with the company who solicited the funds. This board member also handled all the banking related transactions and maintained the checkbook and bank statements.
In retrospect, this situation was a recipe for disaster. When the activity of this officer was identified as criminal conduct, I contacted the department and reported this to the Internal Affairs Division and later to the Financial Crimes Unit.
Although the Ways and Means account was to have an audit done soon, the discovery of this issue has moved the timeline up. We should have an idea of the loss from this solicitation and donation account (Ways and Means) soon.
When that figure is finalized we will turn that information over to HPD's Financial Crimes investigators. We also will turn that information over to Matt Calley's attorney. Matt Calley has assured the Union he will make restitution. We will pass that information along to the membership when the funds are returned to the Union.
That said, it's our responsibility to do whatever it takes to make of our checks and balances system better. In addition to requiring two signatures on all checks and having certified annual audits performed on all Union accounts, the following additional practices have been implemented:
1) All accounts, including dues money, outside income money, solicitation, and PAC money will all be maintained by the treasurer and reviewed by the president or a vice-president. All checks will be printed by computer and signed by 2 persons. The authorized signatures will be the president, vice-presidents, and the treasurer.
2) Copies of all bank statements will be given to the treasurer and to the respective vice-president over the account in question.
3) The bank maintaining the general HPOU account sends copies of each cleared check with the bank statement. These will be reviewed by the finance committee each month. The bank statements from the credit union do not have copies of each check, however, a copy of each cleared check will be downloaded and attached to the bank statement each month and reviewed monthly by the finance committee.
It is my goal to ensure that our financial practices are secure and that procedures are reviewed to ensure we keep a tighter rein on our financial assets and prevent future breaches.
In closing, this was a surprise to everyone concerned. The leadership of the Union has stepped in to not only secure your assets to prevent further breaches of trust but is also pursuing efforts to recover the funds that have been taken. It is our watch and we pledge to do better.
I ask that all officers continue to support and be proud members of this great Union. This storm shall be weathered and this Union will continue to do great things in its efforts to represent HPD officers.
Diverse Bargaining Team
Our 2010 bargaining team has been selected to represent the interests of all HPD officers in our negotiations with Mayor Annise Parker's city of Houston team. Our focus in assembling the bargaining team was to make sure we selected a diverse range of people from various ranks and work assignments in our department. With that goal in mind, we selected the following officers:
HPOU Executive Board Members: Gary Blankinship, J. J. Berry and Ray Hunt
Negotiator: Mark Clark
Contract Counsel: Robert Armbruster
Texas Police Trust: John Yencha and Mike Hamby
Patrol, Investigative and Tactical: Mary Young, Douglas Griffith, Edward Lem, Kim Frederickson and Brenda McCord
Class B: J'Marcus Adams
Sergeants: Paul Ogden and Bill Booth
Lieutenants: Mattie Provost and Joe Barrera
Captains: Lori Bender and Dwayne Ready
As part of our effort to seek and receive input from members related to developing potential issues that we may advance during negotiations with the city, informational meetings will be held on Monday, Feb. 15 at 1 p.m. for captains, followed by a meeting for sergeants that same day at 8 p.m.
On Tuesday, Feb. 16, two additional sergeants meetings will be conducted at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. On Wednesday, Feb. 17 and Thursday, Feb. 18, meetings for the rank of police officer/senior police officer will be held at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. each day. The final meeting for police officer/senior police officer will be held on Friday, Feb. 19. at 10 a.m..
We are hopeful that the meetings will provide us with valuable input that in turn will better enable us to advance the issues that will most benefit all Houston police officers.
Our mission will be to do our very best to improve on the already excellent benefits we have realized to us in previous contracts.
We feel confident that Mayor Parker's team will also do all they can to negotiate a fair agreement with us during negotiations. Of course, when the agreement is tentatively finalized at the bargaining table, it's not approved on our side until officers complete the ratification.
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