Advocacy organization for public employees shuts down

An advocacy organization for Idaho government employees is shutting down.

The board of the Idaho Public Employees Association (IPEA), a Boise-based nonprofit organization founded in 1959, voted on Jan. 23 to shut down the organization after years of declining membership.

“Twenty or 30 years ago, the politics shifted in our state,” said Brandy Selover, who has served as executive director of the organization just since last fall. “We saw support for associations like this shift with it to a more conservative approach. But there’s no one reason by any means.”

Next steps

The IPEA is currently taking steps toward dissolving the organization, with a target date of Feb. 28, Selover said. Although the Legislature is in session, the organization is just monitoring legislative activities and not performing any active lobbying, she said.

“Over the last decade, we saw a pretty consistent but slow decline in membership,” Selover said. “Continuing to rebuild that membership we found consistently difficult, mostly because a lot of the original core base were the older generation that had core values based on advocacy. There was a considerable lack of support from newer generations toward paying monthly dues that they felt wasn’t necessarily where they wanted to place their money.”

But it wasn’t just financial. In addition, members weren’t participating in the organization as well, leading to vacancies on the board of directors, Selover said.

“Most folks did not find time to be active in their district, and the board hasn’t been full for the past several years,” she said. “It’s been challenging to maintain board leadership.”

Organization’s role

Originally founded to advocate for state employees on labor-related issues, the organization’s mission expanded in the mid-1970s to include all public entities, including irrigation districts and law enforcement, Selover said.

While the organization wasn’t a union, it took on similar issues, including worker pay and benefits. According to independent studies, employees in the public sector routinely earn less than employees in the private sector for the same job function, even when benefits are taken into account.

Most recently, state workers were found to make 12% less than their private counterparts, Selover said. In addition, some legislators question the role of the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI), she said.

“I’m saddened by this news that there will not be a voice for Idaho’s public employees going forward,” said Emilie Jackson-Edney,  who retired from the Ada County Highway District, in an email message.

While she was not a member of the IPEA, “I’m truly appreciative of the Association’s involvement in enacting PERSI in 1965,” she said. “Because of this, I enjoy wonderful retirement benefits through PERSI today.”

Dues for the organization were $20 per month, or $240 per year, for currently employed staff and $10 per month, or $120 per year, for retired staff, Selover said. As dues and membership declined, the organization cut staffing down over the past five years to the point where Selover, at half time, was the only employee, acting as both executive director and lobbyist, she said.

While a number of people had expressed dismay or even surprise that the organization was shutting down, the announcement didn’t create an influx of new members or other supporters, Selover said.

“It’s interesting how many folks have come forward and say how sad it is and how surprised they are, but many of those folks weren’t actually active members,” she said.

Selover, who has 20 years of experience in nonprofit organizations, is now looking for full-time work in nonprofits or the public sector.

Meanwhile, the state’s public employees won’t have an advocacy voice, Selover said. “My hope is that folks will start to come together again as a collective voice and continue to engage legislators, but they will have to depend on human resource divisions, which is a complicated circumstance,” she said. “There will be no collective voice for public employees.”