Articles

Arizona Supreme Court to decide if taxpayers must pay the salaries of union employees

April 12, 2016 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA), the police officers’ union, negotiated a contract whereby the city pays full salary and overtime for six full-time and 35 part-time employees who report to the union, and do the union’s work, including lobbying. This is called “release time.” The union b ...

Articles

Arizona Supreme Court : Taxpayers must subsidize public employee union lobbyists

September 13, 2016 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

More than two years after oral argument, a majority of the Arizona Supreme Court today sided with Phoenix unions to require taxpayers to pay for union lobbyists ostensibly employed by the police department.  The court split 3-2 in the case, Cheatham v. DiCiccio. Justice Clint Bolick—former Goldwater Institute counsel for the plaintiffs, William ...