Attorney General Affirms FOP Endorsement Process

Following the Louisiana Fraternal Order of Police's endorsement of Bobby Jindal for Governor, the mayor of Covington questioned the legality of civil service employees affiliating with an organizations that makes political endorsements.

Covington Mayor Candice Watkins sought assistance from Attorney General Charles Foti requesting an opinion regarding the payroll deduction for the FOP dues given her belief that affiliation of Covington police officers in the state organization would violate civil service prohibitions of political activity.

In an opinion released today, Attorney General Charles Foti affirmed that the mayor is required to withhold payroll deductions for members of the FOP and that the endorsement by the State FOP did not constitute an endorsement of any one local lodge, rather the opinion of all state members collectively.

"This opinion is good for the FOP. For some time now our members have struggled with the interpretation of this civil service regulation... a task only made harder by differing Louisiana court rulings. General Foti offers clarification among these various opinions and affirms that the process used by the FOP is acceptable", said State Lodge president Patrick Yoes who praises General Foti for offering clarity.

In the opinion, Attorney General Foti states, "Our understanding of the facts in this circumstance is that the FOP is not a political organization or club as such. Rather, it is a fraternal society of law enforcement officers and retired law enforcement officers bound for the purpose of improving the safety, conditions, and efficiency of performing law enforcement duties and activities and defending themselves against lawsuits and other attacks arising out of them. Members include not only classified civil service municipal policemen but also unclassified law enforcement officers such as sheriffs and sheriff deputies and other law enforcement personnel and retired law enforcement personnel. We are told that the endorsement of a gubernatorial candidate by the state lodge of the FOP was simply a statement of preference; the state lodge of the FOP itself as an entity did not participate in actually campaigning for the election of such candidate and no dues or other FOP monies whatsoever were paid as a political campaign contribution. The state lodge thought that that candidate, if elected, would be better for and improve the plight of law enforcement officers in Louisiana generally. We are told that the state lodge's endorsement does not mean an endorsement by any local lodge, including the local lodge in the Covington area, none of whose members personally participated in the endorsement, and we are further told that, at the state lodge level, the representative from the Covington area did not vote on the endorsement but abstained completely from this activity altogether.

Based on these facts and limited to them, we think that the City of Covington must legally perform payroll deductions at the request of classified city policemen who join the local Covington lodge of the FOP and ask that such payroll deductions be made from their salaries to pay the dues for their membership in the local FOP lodge."

The Louisiana State Lodge wishes to thank State Lodge General Counsel Claude Schlesinger for his tireless research and assistance in this matter.