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Chris Collins |
Executive Director's Message
In August of 2002, I started working at the LVPPA full time as one of the assistant executive directors. At the time, I had no idea how involved I would become in politics. There were ongoing endorsement interviews; drafting of bills to propose when the Legislature was in session; and meetings with City Council members, county commissioners and state legislators. In January of 2007, I was elected executive director of the PPA and I again found myself deeply involved in politics, only this time it included our national delegation as well.
You may already be wondering why the PPA is so involved in politics. The answer is very simple. It is the mission of the PPA and our full-time representatives and staff to protect the rights and benefits we all currently enjoy and to try and secure future rights and benefits that are even better than those we have now. This is all accomplished through the help and cooperation of our elected representatives. We use our endorsements of political candidates and our ongoing support of incumbents to help us forge ongoing relationships with these representatives, and this in turn helps us accomplish our ultimate goal of improving your benefits and working conditions. As you can imagine, it takes time to build these relationships, and they survive on trust. As for our endorsement, it is not given out lightly; this past primary election season we held well over 150 interviews of potential candidates and only gave our endorsement to candidates who have supported us in the past or to candidates who we believe will be helpful in protecting and advocating on behalf of your rights and benefits.
One of our endorsements has gotten the attention of many of you. That endorsement is for Senator Harry Reid. Many of you, like myself, are registered Republicans. And I understand that some of you, for one reason or another, don’t particularly care for Senator Reid or his politics. For this reason, I wanted to take this opportunity to explain to you why the PPA, along with most other law enforcement organizations in Nevada, have found it appropriate to endorse Senator Reid in his current bid for re-election. Senator Reid is a former law enforcement officer (Capitol Police officer), and during his time as a U.S. senator he has voted on many occasions to protect or enhance the rights and benefits we all enjoy. I am sure that on other issues or areas of interest, he has cast votes that you may not necessarily agree with, and that is certainly your right. I cannot tell you how to vote in any given election, but I can at least ask that you take the time to educate yourself on all the things Senator Reid has done for law enforcement over his many years in public office. In my office at the PPA, I have a seven-page document that lists just some of the things Senator Reid has done for law enforcement. I am more than willing to share this document with any of you who are interested in reading it. They are simply too numerous to list here but to name just a few, Senator Reid has repeatedly cosponsored legislation to enact pension-fairness bills so that our social security benefits would not unfairly be reduced simply because we already receive a pension, and he was the sponsor of the bill to allow law enforcement officers to carry firearms on planes.
I would also like to share with you a few of my own personal experiences with Senator Reid. I have heard both Sheriff Gillespie and Sheriff Young talk about the monies senator Reid has secured for our Department over the years. As a result of the senator’s efforts, we have some of the best-equipped specialized units in this part of the country, if not nationwide. In addition, this past May when many of us were in Washington, DC, for National Police Week and to be present for the reading of the names of our fallen Metro heroes onto the Memorial wall, Senator Reid invited the families of these officers to meet with him in his office in DC and to honor their lost loved ones, which is something that I understand no other federal representative did. On Wednesday, May 26, I had a meeting in Washington, DC, with Senator Reid at his Capitol office where I asked him for his support in trying to pass the national collective bargaining bill. During our conversation, Senator Reid assured me he would do everything he could to get the bill passed. This may not seem like any big deal; however, it is important for two reasons. First, I did not even ask to meet with Senator Reid until Friday, May 21, yet the senator found time in his busy schedule to accommodate my request, as he always does. Seeing the senator or speaking to him on the phone has never a problem, and he has always made himself fully accessible to me and the PPA. This is especially noteworthy when you consider that in all my time here at the PPA, I have never been able to secure a personal meeting or even so much as a phone call with Senator Ensign. I guess he is just too busy for law enforcement. Secondly, Senator Reid has stood up for the national collective bargaining bill because he supports public employees and believes in their right to bargain collectively, even though it is not the most popular bill with folks like the Chamber of Commerce members or the Review-Journal writers. We certainly already know how the Review-Journal feels about the police. This fact was proven to me again on Sunday, May 30, when the Review-Journal printed an editorial bashing Senator Reid for trying to bring this bill to a vote. You can read the editorial for yourselves; you will see that it contained the normal Review-Journal garbage about public servants making too much money. In any event, Senator Reid supports this bill and is standing behind it as we have urged him to do, despite the public pressure against it.
With all that said, many of you will still say Senator Reid has cast votes that you cannot accept, and I understand and respect your feelings. All I can ask is that you take a few minutes and consider all he has done for us here at Metro and for law enforcement nationwide. You have elected me as the executive director of the PPA and it is my responsibility to protect and enhance your rights and your benefits. This task will be much easier with Senator Reid working for us in Washington, DC.
The first half of my article was written prior to the primary election. Now that the primary is over, I can provide you with additional information regarding the upcoming general election. We now know that Senator Reid will face one of Nevada’s most extreme public figures, Sharron Angle. For Nevada voters, the choice could not be clearer.
Sharron Angle wants to phase out Social Security and Medicare, despite the income and care they provide to Nevada’s seniors, and further deregulate the oil industry that caused the oil spill in the Gulf. She sided with Wall Street banks in opposing any sort of reform, even though Wall Street’s recklessness caused the country’s economic problems. She opposed a modest increase in the minimum wage and an effort to expand collective bargaining rights. She even voted against funding for additional police officers in Clark County, even though Clark County residents had voted to approve it.
In fact, even Sharron admits that she is so extreme that her fellow Republicans call her “wacky,” and her peers voted her Nevada’s worst legislator in 1999. She is heavily supported by a national Tea Party movement that wants to make this a national election and cares more about rigid doctrine than Nevada common sense. But in times like these, this race should be about what’s best for Nevada.
Senator Reid continues to fight, as he has throughout his career, for all Nevadans. Himself a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, Harry Reid has led the fight to provide Nevada’s police and firefighters with the resources they need. He has secured funds for the Las Vegas Fusion Center, as well as the COPS program and JAG grants. He also saved the jobs of more than 20,000 workers at City Center in Las Vegas, after the banks threatened to shut down the project, and he secured $600 million for the veterans’ hospital in Las Vegas. He has secured funding for 32 active road projects in Nevada, employing crews of workers who can keep food on the table and a roof over their families’ heads. |
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