Las Vegas Police Protective Association wants to endorse Lombardo by seeking bylaw change
LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas Police Protective Association (LVPPA) is asking union members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to vote for changing the union bylaws so its Executive Board would have sole authority to give union endorsement to Sheriff Joe Lombardo, according to sources who spoke to the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
The LVPPA has not endorsed any candidate for sheriff because of a recent vote by the membership.
Steve Grammas, president of the LVPPA that represents the 2,808 rank and file members of the LVMPD, sent out a letter March 20 to the membership urging them to support incumbent Lombardo in the upcoming June primary election.
In part, the letter stated, “I believe that Sheriff Lombardo is the best candidate in the race and I would like to see us continue to have a working relationship between the Sheriff and the LVPPA. Soon, a vote will be going out to the membership to see which candidate they want to support in the coming election. I speak for the entire Executive Board when I say we hope the response comes back in support of Sheriff Lombardo.”
LVPPA did not respond to Baltimore Post-Examiner’s request for comment.
More than 80 percent of the LVPPA disagreed with Grammas.
On April 2 Grammas sent out the following letter:
“Last week we sent out the vote for who you all wanted to endorse for the coming Sheriff’s election. 2,808 emails to vote went out to our membership. We had 775 members cast their vote while 264 members opened the vote but did not cast a vote and 1, 769 members did not open the voting email. The results area as follows: Joe Lombardo- 526 (68%), Timothy Bedwell- 183 (24%), Gordon Martines- 36 (5%), Matthew Caldwell- 21 (3%) and Gregory Heiny- 9 (1%).
We did not reach the necessary 51% of the membership casting a vote in this endorsement. As such, and in accordance with the Bylaws, the LVPPA will not be endorsing any candidate in this election.”
The Baltimore Post-Examiner was told that union representatives at the LVMPD Area Commands are urging LVPPA members to sign ballots approving changing the union bylaws giving the LVPPA Executive Board the power to endorse Sheriff Lombardo before the upcoming June primary election, thus bypassing the recent union vote.
Police officers were instructing others not to sign the ballots because doing so would not give them a voice, according to sources.
Doug authored over 135 articles on the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas Massacre, more than any other single journalist in the country. He investigates stories on corruption, law enforcement, and crime. Doug is a US Army Military Police Veteran, former police officer, deputy sheriff, and criminal investigator. Doug spent 20 years in the hotel/casino industry as an investigator and then as Director of Security and Surveillance. He also spent a short time with the US Dept. of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration. In 1986 Doug was awarded Criminal Investigator of the Year by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia for his undercover work in narcotics enforcement. In 1991 and 1992 Doug testified in court that a sheriff’s office official and the county prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence during the 1988 trial of a man accused of the attempted murder of his wife. Doug’s testimony led to a judge’s decision to order the release of the man from prison in 1992 and awarded him a new trial, in which he was later acquitted. As a result of Doug breaking the police “blue wall of silence,” he was fired by the county sheriff. His story was featured on Inside Edition, Current Affair and CBS News’ “Street Stories with Ed Bradley”. In 1992 after losing his job, at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Doug infiltrated a group of men who were plotting the kidnapping of a Dupont fortune heir and his wife. Doug has been a guest on national television and radio programs speaking on the stories he now writes as an investigative journalist. Catch Doug’s Podcast: @dougpoppa1
If 1700 out of 2800 members of the Union didnt even open the email that means either there is a major problem and they dont really have an effective and engaged Union, or somehow 1700 members didnt see or get it for some strange reason. Regardless, that is the most troublesome fact of the article. I wonder if there is more to the story as to why the members would be so lackadaisical about their own labor issues.