1/12/2023
Dear Fellow Paragon PSO’s,
My name is Darryl Hill and I work as a PSO for Paragon out of Los Angeles, CA for the past 15 years. Our contract has over 380 Officers, and I served as the former SPFPA Local 3 President for two terms, (4) years.
In 2020, we were approached by Steve Maritas asking us to join his union for better representation, wages and benefits. We decided to leave SPFPA, and give Maritas a chance. By doing so, our Local Union walked away from over $500,000 in our Local treasury which we used for meetings, to represent our members, and to assist our members during COVID relief.
It didn’t take long to discover that we had made a serious mistake. Maritas made many promises to get us on board, but failed to keep many of them. The biggest of them all, was the splitting of the union dues money between the Local and the International. All he is to us now, is a dues-collecting ghost, failing our members in almost every way.
When we voted for Maritas, SPFPA already had a larger than ever/unprecedented 3-year wage increase of over 12% on the table, that was already agreed to by Paragon. Our members set that aside to go to the new union based on the promise of everything will be better. For the record, it is NOT! In fact, it’s way worse.
I write this letter to let you know not to make the same mistake we made. SPFPA is a legitimate Union, with a 75-year history. We didn’t always see eye to eye on everything, but SPFPA was a MUCH better Union than Maritas and UFLEOS!
Please take the time and compare the Unions. Note: When someone comes to you with a lot of promises, that’s your first sign to run. Maritas has no benefit plan and is a one-man show, taking all of your money and giving you little or nothing for it.
If you have any questions or would like to talk with me personally, I can be reached at Vpdarrylhill@gmail.com.
I wish you all the best with this critical decision. For me and my fellow officers, we are done with Maritas/UFLEOS!
Sincerely and Fraternally,
Darryl Hill
PSO Paragon LA
