FOR SEVERAL years, Council 2 had worked on the Pension Governance Bill. They fine-tuned it, lobbied legislators to support it, and received support for it from other unions.

After all, its passage was important to Council 2 members who would benefit from its provision to set up a Pension Board to design and monitor the pension system. The board would hire its own actuary, too.

Finally, during the 2002 session, victory was in sight.

But it was not to be that easy. Several events turned the path toward passage into an obstacle-strewn one.

• First, the measure threatened to become a victim of the short session’s cut-off dates. That obstacle was overcome, however, when Council 2 — assisted by House Speaker Frank Chopp — succeeded in having the measure exempted from the rules.
  
  The Appropriations and Rules committees each approved the measure in fast order and it was approved by the House in a surprising 64-32 vote.
• Next, the bill looked certain to fall victim to the session’s time limits.
  
  With the clock ticking mercilessly on, however, the Senate agreed to “catch it on the fly” — legislation jargon for pulling a bill straight to the floor for a vote. Only a few bills each session are treated this way, meaning it was a coup for Council 2 even to have its bill on the list.
  
  Another obstacle had been overcome.
• Then, on the eve of the last day of the session, came the Senate vote. Council 2’s Director of Legislation/Political Action Pat Thompson waited anxiously, wondering whether sufficient votes could be mustered to approve the bill. His anxiety grew as a number of Republicans suddenly switched their votes. Trying to keep track of all the switching was fruitless.
  
  The Senate voted 25-23 to approve the measure. The constitutional majority for passing a Senate bill is 25, so there was no vote to spare.
  
  Lawmakers and other lobbyists congratulated Thompson. The victory over the final obstacle had been narrow, but it had been real. Or had it?
  
  The celebration proved to be too early when Senator Shirley Winsley (R–Fircrest) — who had earlier supported the measure — moved to “reconsider” the bill shortly before the Senate adjourned.
  
  “The apparent strategy was to hold our bill hostage, along with other House bills, to force the House to pass some Senate bills they wanted,” Thompson says. “In short, our miraculous come-from-behind victory was the victim of end-game politics; 24 hours wasn’t enough time to fix it.”
  
  But the biggest disappointment of the session had its good-news sides, too.
  
  For one, the measure gained considerable support from influential lawmakers, including Speaker Frank Chopp and Rep. Bill Fromhold (D–Vancouver).
  
  “Representative Fromhold deserves special thanks as he jumped into the fray and went way beyond the call of duty,” says Thompson.
  
  “He joins long-time allies such as Steve Conway (D – Tacoma) and Mike Cooper (D – Edmonds) in fighting to improve our pension rights.”
  
  The good news, too, is that Council 2 has a lot of momentum to get the measure passed in the 2003 legislative session, when it will be joined by an initiative filed by the firefighters and police to create a governance board.