The City of Los Angeles General Services Department Special Officer Classification is comprised of Penal Code Section 830.31(c)(1) peace officers. Enclaved within SIEU Local 347, a much larger union with thousands of non-peace officer city employees, and placed there during less-enlightened times, Special Officers were denied severance on a petition brought before the Los Angeles Employee Relations Board (ERB) more than a decade ago.

            Since that time, the Special Officers regrouped as the Los Angeles General Services Police Officers Association (LAGSPOA), have acquired greater peace officer powers and authority, and with great fortitude by its President, Joe Barrett, again filed a Petition for Severance. While at first glance it appeared that Special Officers were entitled to be in a unit separate from non-peace officers by virtue of Government Code Section 3508, case law seems to suggest that this right only benefits those who were deemed by statute to be peace officers at the time Section 3508 gave rights to peace officers to sever out of non-peace officer unions in the year 1971.

            Notwithstanding that, LAGSPOA, represented by attorneys from Lackie and Dammeier,  proceeded on its petition under the theory that its members had a community of interest separate and distinct from the other thousands of non-peace officer employees in SEIU, and that SEIU did not understand and would not respond to their needs over the history of its bargaining on behalf of the Special Officers. Over the years, the City of Los Angeles Employee Relations Board allowed harbor police and port police to sever out of SEIU (in part based on Govt. Code Section 3508 referenced above). In fact, harbor and port police, until very recently, shared the same personnel classification as General Services Special Officers.

            Seeing the writing on the wall, at the hearing on the petition SEIU ended up conceding that a separate bargaining unit for Special Officers would be appropriate. Hearing officer Ken Perea issued a recommended decision that the Special Officer classification hold an election on severing out of SEIU. On Monday, August 22, 2005, the Los Angeles ERB adopted the hearing officer's recommendation, and has set the election to take place in 90 days.

            It is not uncommon for various peace officer classifications to still be a small minority in a larger union that is not geared toward understanding and fighting for the interests of peace officers as employees. Most times the peace officers' interests are subordinated to that of the overwhelming majority of the non-peace officers in the union. Govt. Code Section 3508, recognizing that peace officers' representational needs are met best by associations exclusively composed of peace officers, was designed to prevent peace officers' interests from being lost in huge unions of non-peace officers. Even if the protections of Govt. Code Section 3508 are not directly applicable to all statutory peace officers, some of the policy and motivation it are applicable: peace officers have incredibly unique concerns when it comes to terms and conditions of employment that gives them a community of interest separate and distinct from non-peace officers, and unions composed largely of non-peace officers are not equipped to address those concerns. 

            Assuming the majority of Special Officers vote to sever, they will have their own new bargaining unit and will be able to focus on issues important to police officers.