Sacbee — Mike Jimenez, the mercurial leader of the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association, is retiring at the end of this year and members have elected the union’s executive vice president, Chuck Alexander, to head the organization starting Jan. 1.
The leadership change, announced Thursday after a vote at the union’s annual convention, will mark just the second time CCPOA has turned over administrations since organizing more than 30 years ago.
Jimenez, 52, assumed the union presidency when Don Novey retired in 2002. The dozen years that followed were some of the most turbulent in the union’s history: Contract battles with former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, furloughs, Gov. Jerry Brown’s prison system downsizing program and a defamation lawsuit that cost CCPOA millions of dollars all created unrest among the union’s 30,000 members.
Jimenez was known for bizarre and provocative antics, such as refusing to cut his hair and beard during a bargaining impasse with Schwarzenegger. At one point during contentious labor talks the union ordered up a large unflattering picture of the movie star-governor in a Speedo and had it driven around the Capitol. continue reading...
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