Dear COBA Members and Retirees;

On Weds March 16th, COBA along with Nassau's 5 other Labor Unions, signed an agreement to settle the long outstanding longevity issue with County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

As per COBA By Laws, a "Special Meeting" of the Board of Governors must be called within 72 hours of signing this tentative agreement, for them to review and accept, prior to it being sent to the Membership for ratification.

That meeting was called at 11 am this morning, Friday March 18th, and was also attended by our Chief Labor Counsel Steven Isaacs who along with the Board went over the agreement line by line for complete accuracy and understanding.

All members of the entire Board asked pointed and thoughtful questions, vetting out the entirety of the agreement. Once all questions were asked and answered a motion was made, seconded and a vote was taken to send the agreement to the COBA Membership for ratification.

The vote was unanimous and the issue will now be forwarded to our members.

We are in the process now of securing a Hall to have informational membership meetings, where all members of COBA will be afforded the opportunity to view all documents, and ask questions on the issue. We also need to secure voting machines and a date for the ratification vote.

The informational meetings will most likely be held the middle/end of next week.

COBA Delegates were issued Fact Sheets that both summarize the history of the longevity issue along with detailing what is in the agreement itself.

These Fact Sheets will begin to be distributed today. I will also send out the Fact Sheet in an additional email.

Once the dates of the informational meetings have been secured, you will all be notified and given the opportunity to come and ask any and all questions regarding this agreement prior to the vote.

In Unity;

Brian Sullivan, COBA President