Explanations Please

Don't forget, there's an FOP General Meeting this week on 17 September at 1900 hours to vote down any surviving By-Law proposals that would strip you of National representation.

In the meantime, someone - or  many someones - should be asking questions of the three-person investigative committee, along with the executive board about some of these issues: 

• Between 2020 and 2023, Lodge 7 experienced a dramatic revenue surge—but their financial surplus has almost completely collapsed. Annual revenue rose from $7.9 million in 2020 to $10.6 million in 2023. Yet their surplus (revenues minus expenses) plunged from $1.9 million to just $311,000 during the same period.

• Despite collecting millions more in dues, virtually none of that additional money remains at year end. This alone should prompt questions, but members are prevented from asking them, because they are denied access to the union’s financial records.

• At the same time, “Other Expenses” have exploded with no clear explanation. These vaguely defined costs more than doubled from $3.4 million in 2020 to $7.1 million in 2023.

• “Other” is a catch-all category that gives no breakdown of what these millions of dollars are actually spent on. This is especially concerning given that the president has repeatedly blocked members from reviewing the underlying financial documents that could explain these expenses. This pattern—vague expenses combined with secrecy—is a known hallmark of union corruption and embezzlement.

• The same risk factors are now present at Lodge 7: massive unexplained spending growth, collapsing surpluses, and leadership actively obstructing financial transparency. That combination is exactly how other unions were looted from the inside before federal intervention exposed it.

• Last week, after charges were brought against John, the 1st Vice President introduced a motion calling for a forensic audit of the Lodge’s finances. The reaction was explosive, you would have thought someone had yelled “fire.” The entire board erupted in opposition, with the retirees shouting the loudest. After heated back-and-forth and multiple concessions, the board ultimately agreed to allow only a limited audit of the credit card accounts, and even that passed with just one holdout: Duckhorn.

If we had a business and....:

• revenue was up from $7,937,923 in 2020 to $10,662,133 in 2023, (a THIRTY-FOUR percent increase over four reporting periods) but....
• net income fell from $1,938,536 in 2020 all the way down to $311,646 in 2023 (an EIGHTY-THREE percent loss)....

We'd be demanding answers across the board....or from the Board if you like.

But hey, do the math yourself - here are the publicly available financial documents with the numbers cited. Just don't post them on the FOP Bulletin Boards - you might get a letter from Jim trying to keep the lights off.