THE WPPA’s 75th ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION
Convention Workshops

Discipline and Internal Investigations
Attorney Gordon McQuillen
Saturday, May 19, 9:00-10:00 a.m. & Sunday, May 20, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Gordon McQuillen will again present his popular seminar regarding discipline of employees. The focus of this workshop will be the prevention of possible discipline: How can you keep yourself and your co-workers out of situations where the potential for discipline exists in the first place? The session will also address the sources of employee rights in discipline cases, the procedures that must be followed before an employer can discipline an employee according to both the law and collective bargaining agreements, and the appeal rights of employees who have been disciplined. There will be time for questions at the end of this session.

McQuillen is a native of South Dakota who moved to Wisconsin in 1969 to teach in the Manitowoc public schools after receiving his B. S. in English from Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He earned an M. S. in English from NSC in 1972. As a member of his local teachers’ union, he became active in negotiations and grievance processing. He served as an elected member of the WEAC Teacher Rights Commission and conducted at least ten arbitration cases for his local association.

In 1978, McQuillen left teaching to attend the University of Wisconsin Law School, from which he graduated in 1980. After working as an attorney for WEAC, he entered private practice with Cullen Weston Pines & Bach. He left the firm in 2002, where he had been the managing partner, and joined the staff of the WPPA as its Director of Legal Services.

While with the WPPA, McQuillen worked for its members in all aspects of labor law, including bargaining, grievance processing, discipline cases, and general advice to members and staff of the WPPA. He retired from his position with the WPPA on December 31, 2006. He continues to provide services to the WPPA as a consultant.

McQuillen has litigated a number of cases in the Wisconsin courts, including the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. His Supreme Court cases have established the right of deputy sheriffs to retain their positions as deputies, even where sheriffs have refused to swear them as deputies and have helped to establish the right of deputies to arbitrate discipline rather than be required to appeal solely through the courts.

He also has been instrumental in drafting legislation on the state and national level. Some of the bills that he has helped to draft have actually become law. McQuillen is a frequent presenter in workshops in Wisconsin and for NAPO, as well as a frequent guest speaker in labor classes at the U. W. Law School.

Retirement Distribution Payout Strategies
Daniel P. Dodd, Retirement Plan Advisors
Saturday, May 19, 9:00-10:00 a.m.

The retirement equation has changed! In just a single generation, the average retirement age of public safety professionals has dropped and the life expectancy has increased substantially. As a result, public safety professionals can look forward to a retirement lasting 20, 30, even 40 years. With a significantly longer retirement comes the challenge of making sure your retirement savings lasts. For the first time, retirees need to convert their retirement savings into a stream of income lasting up to 40 years or more.

This session covers the basic steps to converting your retirement savings into a lifetime stream of income. Topics to be covered include asset allocation strategies for the retiree, principal protection, maintaining purchasing power, and wealth protection.

Dan Dodd attended Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Social Studies Education. He has been in the financial services industry since 2001. Two years prior to joining Retirement Plan Advisors, Dodd offered general securities through GE Financial.

Dodd is currently focusing on public sector retirement plans, marketing at the city and county levels and at public schools. He holds NASD Series 6 and 63 licenses and is a licensed provider of life, health and variable annuity insurance.

Bargaining from a Local’s Perspective
WPPA Business Agents Joseph Durkin & Michael Goetz
Saturday, May 19, 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Mike Goetz and Joe Durkin will walk you through the composition of a contract bargain. The aim is to provide you with information you need to make your bargaining session more productive for you, the local leader, as well as for your members. This workshop will provide you with an outline that takes you through a contract bargain, and it will assist you in determining what issues to bring forward and pitfalls to avoid. (War stories will be avoided to protect the innocent!)

The workshop will touch on: surveying your members, identifying and rating your local’s significant issues, creating proposals, what tentative agreements mean, and strategies for ratification. Durkin and Goetz will look at what happens if things don’t go well, and what to expect of the mediation/arbitration process. The workshop’s goal is to help your local work with the WPPA Business Agent during bargaining.

Durkin has been an employee with the WPPA since February of 2005 and works out of the Madison office. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison with an Economics Degree. Durkin was a Madison police officer from 1980 until his retirement in 2005. He served in a variety of assignments within the Madison Police Department, and was assigned to the Patrol Division as a sergeant in his final four years at the department. Durkin is a former Board member of the WPPA, serving in that capacity for six years. He was also a Board member of the Madison Professional Police Officers Association for eight years, serving as its president for five years.

Goetz has worked for the WPPA since July 2004. His law enforcement background includes employment as a police officer with the Evansville Police Department from May 1991 to July 2004, and with the Milton Police Department from April 1992 to June 1997. Goetz was in the Wisconsin Army National Guard from February 1989 to February 1993 and served in Desert Storm in 1991. He has a B.S. in Public Administration with an emphasis on Law Enforcement from Upper Iowa University.

How New Retiree Healthcare Reporting Requirements Affect Collective Bargaining and VEBA Plans
Dave Zahller, Security Benefit & Joshua Schwartz, Retirement Plan Advisors
Saturday, May 19, 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Several years ago, the government accounting standards board (GASB) issued Statement 45. GASB 45 requires all governmental employers to calculate and disclose the costs of other post employment benefits (OPEB) they provide. By far the largest single component of OPEB expenses for governmental employers is retiree health care.

While retiree healthcare has been a contentious issue during contract negotiations for years, for the first time employers actually know how much it will cost them to provide these benefits over the long term and it is changing how employers are approaching contract negotiations.

This session will cover a brief introduction to GASB 45, what the requirements are, when the government agencies have to report, and, more importantly, it will focus on what this means to you in the collective bargaining process. Potential solutions to address retiree health care funding are also explored.

Dave Zahller has focused on public sector retirement plans business since 1988. He has been involved in all aspects of public sector retirement plans from enrollments: plan acquisitions, supervising registered representative, and relationship management. He has managed the servicing staff for over seven hundred 457 and 401(a) plans with total assets in excess of $380M.

Mr. Zahller has presented numerous workshops and authored articles on many aspects of public sector retirement planning and education. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a BS in Resource Management and an MS from George Williams College in Downers Grove, Illinois.

Joshua Schwartz is a principal and co-founder of Retirement Plan Advisors. He has 19 years of experience working with groups and individuals on retirement planning and related individual financial services. His background includes: plan design and implementation, contract negotiations, branch office operations, recruiting, client acquisition and retention, and investment analysis/recommendations.

Schwartz earned a BA Philosophy degree from University of Chicago. He holds the following NASD registrations: Series 6, 26, 63, and 65, is affiliated with a Registered Investment Advisor, and is licensed in Illinois for life, accident and health insurance.

My Pension Is Under Attack! Will It Be There For Me?
Sandy Drew, State of Wisconsin Investment Board
Sunday, May 20, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

One of the benefits you receive as a public law enforcement officer is pension coverage under the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). This pension fund was created to provide you and your family with financial security after you retire or in the event of your disability or untimely death. But public pension funds are under attack today. Will your pension be there for you and your family? How is it being protected and invested today? These are important questions that every public employee should ask. The answers are as important to the employee who is just starting a career as it is to the employee who is approaching retirement.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) invests the assets of the WRS – one of the largest public pension funds in the nation. With the exception of Milwaukee city and county employees, virtually all public employees in the state – including police and fire, state, university, teachers and local government employees – are covered under the WRS and are affected by SWIB’s investment practices and the returns that it earns.

Learn more about this valuable benefit you have, how it is protected, how your retirement assets are invested, how the decisions to invest are made, how those decisions affect you as an active employee and once you retire, the effect that SWIB and the WRS have on the state’s economy, and challenges we all face today and in the coming years to protect the WRS.

Sandy Drew is Legislative and Beneficiary Liaison for the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB). SWIB invests the assets for the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), which covers approximately 535,000 past and present public employees in the state. Ms. Drew has nearly 25 years experience dealing with employee benefits and legislation, 12 of which have been dedicated to the Wisconsin Retirement System and other benefits available to police, fire, teachers and state, university and local government employees. Ms. Drew’s responsibilities include presenting the agency’s position to elected officials and fund participants.

Ms. Drew joined the SWIB staff in 2000 when she returned to Wisconsin after living in Vermont and directing the Vermont Employers Health Alliance. Prior to that, she worked as Director of Legislation and Planning for the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, which administers the benefits for the WRS, and Legislative Liaison for the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.

Ms. Drew is a Wisconsin native, received her BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and attended graduate courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has served on several professional and civic boards in both Madison and Vermont, and currently is on the Board of Housing Initiatives, Inc., which provides housing for homeless people with mental illness.

Bargaining for Domestic Partner Benefits
Attorney Tamara Packard, Cullen Weston Pines & Bach, LLP
Sunday, May 20, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Want to ensure all your union brothers and sisters are compensated fairly? Are the best and brightest young officers going to work elsewhere? Come hear about how to meet compensation and recruitment needs, for less cost than management might think.

Tamara Packard is a partner in the law firm of Cullen Weston Pines & Bach LLP, and focuses her practice on labor and employment matters. She and her law partner, Lester Pines, represented the union in the Wisconsin case that established Domestic Partner Benefits as an appropriate subject of bargaining, Pritchard v. Madison Metropolitan School District. Ms. Packard is currently involved in ensuring that Domestic Partner Benefits are protected, following Wisconsin's adoption of the "marriage amendment" to the Wisconsin Constitution.

Ms. Packard received a B.A. in English from Oberlin College in 1990, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1994. Ms. Packard is an active member of the James E. Doyle Chapter of the American Inns of Court, as well as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Legal Association for Women, the National Employment Lawyers Association and the Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association.

Grievance Handling and the Responsibilities of Grievance Officers
Consultant Robert West & WPPA Business Agent John Dillon
Sunday, May 20, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Attend this workshop and learn how to file and process grievances. We will discuss the function of the grievance procedure, review real case situations, and discuss what worked and what didn’t.

In this workshop, we will look at arbitration: when to go, when to settle, and when to stop before arbitration. We will analyze the pro and cons of arbitrating poor cases, and provide analysis of participant real-life, back-home issues.

Robert West, known for his dynamic motivational speaking, will also address convention delegates at the General Session on Sunday morning, May 20, on the topic “It’s Your Union - Are You Proud Of It?” See Convention Keynote Speakers for more information about Mr. West.

John Dillon began representing WPPA members in January 2000. From 1979 to 1999, he worked for the Waukesha Police Department, the first nine years as a patrol officer. Promoted to detective in 1988, his primary duties were investigating child abuse/neglect, fire/arson, as well as other crimes as assigned. Dillon held a position on the bargaining committee for 18 years. He served as the chairman and spokesman of the committee in negotiations with the City of Waukesha. Dillon has attended a Human Resource Management Course at Marquette University, as well as training offered by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.