Message from Chief George Basar, MACP Legislative Chairman

It is no secret that things have changed in Lansing.  We have a new Governor, with new ideas and for all practical purposes, essentially a new legislature.  Unlike the past many years, with the new Legislature comes the dominance of one political party that now controls the Senate, the House of Representative and the Governor’s office.  This dynamic alone makes for interesting politics.

Governor Snyder has embarked on an aggressive reform agenda.  That agenda has lead to the demonizing and vilifying of public sector employees and has their wages, benefits and pensions squarely targeted for some measure of legislative reform.  Unfortunately, there appears to be absolutely no recognition or acknowledgement of the reforms and concessions that many of our  police and fire departments have already made and continue to make as we maneuver through these difficult financial times. 

The times have changed, the politics have changed, the dynamics have changed and the introduction and consideration of new legislation to achieve the Governor’s reforms continues at a rapid pace. As a result the MACP Legislative Committee along with the Board of Directors have begun the process of rethinking, reforming and remaking the ways in which we communicate our interests and positions to our elected representatives in Lansing.

It has been recognized that we are most effective when we work together as a team to convey our message to the Legislature.  We are beyond the point where we can rely on one or two or three people to always be in Lansing lobbying for our position on any and every piece of legislation that comes along.  Hiring a lobbyist is an expensive proposition and has been tried in the past, with very disappointing results. We are most effective when collectively we work together to convey our message and to communicate the MACP’s position to our individual Representatives and Senators.  We do that most effectively while we have them back in their district and on our home turf.  What we are talking about is a grassroots lobbying effort.

The Legislature is not in session on Mondays and Fridays.  Our Representatives and Senators are back home in their districts making themselves available to meet with constituents.  One of those extremely important constituents is their local Chief of Police. This time affords an opportunity for our members to reach out and to get know their legislators one-on-one.  If you already know and have a relationship with your area legislators, that’s even better.   Invite them to coffee or to lunch, give them a tour of your station, maybe even a brief ride along if they have time.

This is your opportunity to discuss issues, pending legislation, MACP’s legislative priorities and/or positions on various legislation and initiatives.  It is important that they hear directly from you as to the pros and cons of pending legislation and how it will directly affect some of their very important constituents; you, your department and your community.  Provide them with real world examples of the impacts that a particular piece of legislation will have on you and your department, or on the law enforcement profession as a whole.  They will carry that information with them back to Lansing and into committee hearings.  It will be your voice and your examples that are playing in their heads as they weigh testimony and decide whether to vote a particular bill out of committee or to vote yes or no once it reaches the House or Senate floor. Your impact and influence at the local level and the one-on-one relationships that you establish with your legislators cannot be stressed enough.

Recently members of the MACP Legislative Committee and the MACP Board of Directors attended a lobbying workshop that was hosted exclusively for us by the professional lobbying staff of the Michigan Municipal League.  During the workshop we covered a wide range of topics including; legislative process 101, how to develop the message, how to build meaningful and ongoing relationships with your elected representatives, how to identify and make contact with key legislative staffers and how to identify and move in the direction of a win-win.  We are also in the process of developing this workshop and making it available for all of our members at this year’s summer and mid-winter conferences.

Each and every district in the state is represented by a member on the Board of Directors.  Many, if not all, also have area chiefs who set on the Legislative Committee.  Having, completed the workshop they are available as a resource to all of our members should anyone need or desire any advice or suggestion on developing talking points, confirming MACP’s position or revisiting our legislative priorities before reaching out and making that first contact with your legislator.

I cannot stress enough the importance of developing that contact and relationship with your elected representatives. This has to be a team effort and we must all be engaged in delivering our message.  As we go forward we may be relying on you to carry our message to your specific representative.  He or she may have introduced a bill, sets on, or chairs a specific committee or is just an ally of law enforcement who may champion our cause or introduce a bill or amendment on our behalf.

We will still be in Lansing when needed to lobby on behalf of our position and to offer testimony before House and Senate committees on various pieces of legislation.  We will also likely be calling on the local chiefs who are constituents of key committee members, and ask them to also offer testimony on our behalf. We know that the Senators and Representatives pay close attention to needs of their local communities, especially when that message is carried by their local Police Chief.