Last CIO Meeting

Today I had my last meeting with David Villanueva, the CIO of Sacramento County. Several members felt that I should cease meeting with David in order to prevent any misperception that my role as DPPA President should speak for Unit 028 in its new, represented status. David and I parted ways in the best of light and will remain friends no matter what happens with our new union.

Where Unit 028 is today ...

On this historic day, April 26th, 2011, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors (BOS) granted official recognition to the United Public Employees of California (UPEC), Local 792 as the exclusive representation unit of 028, the County IT workers. Because of this, all changes to 028 working conditions have to be negotiated before UPEC, Local 792 before the BOS can vote them in. This is something that DPPA gave up when 028 voted in the organization back in 1983. All we could do was ask to be listened to, but Labor Relations did not have to negotiate before they changed anything.

This change will take place on May 7th, 2011. Your DPPA President had a meeting with Sacramento County Labor Relations and they said DPPA could continue to be a social organization, but the ties to Labor Relations would be cut on May 8th. DPPA will no longer get the $1 per pay period, which DPPA Members have given to DPPA, after that day. The DPPA Board has not decided what we will do in the future with the organization yet. You will be asked to vote on this when the DPPA Board has some idea what will be the effort of our new organization.

What the DPPA Board decided to do in the short term at the last Board meeting was continue to give the Service Awards and have the picnic in the summer. We could continue to do this for some years in the future due to the saving that DPPA has made over the years. Probably in the early fall, we will decide what the options are for DPPA in the future and ask for a vote on it before we do anything with the moneys that we have saved. In our by-laws, it states that we must give the money away to a charitable organization if we close up shop. If any of you have any idea what DPPA should do with the money, let us hear from you by emailing us at dppa@dppa.org.

Now on to what is happening with UPEC, Local 792.

On Tuesday night, April 26th, 2011, 028 employees meet with the UPEC people who will represent 028 in the future. UPEC really wants to have as many members of 028 decide what they should negotiate on. It was decided that we will have a General Members meeting on the second Tuesday of the month between 5:30pm and 7pm at Probation. We have the first six meetings at the following location: Youth Detention Facility (Juvenille Hall) 9601 Kiefer Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95827. The dates for the first meetings are: May 10th, June 14th, July 12th, August 9th, September 13th and October 11th all in 2011.

As part of the first meeting, UPEC will ask 028 for anybody that wants to be on the negotiating committee and those people will stay after the genreal members meeting to go over what we will be negotiating with Labor Relations. The following negotiating meetings will be at 3331 Power Inn Road, for May 17th and 31st, 2011.

This is a new day for 028 and hopefully the change to have UPEC negotiate our working conditions will be good.

Where we go from here...

We would like to say thank you to all that participated in the 028 election over the past two days. For many of you having UPEC, Local 792, LiUNA voted in yesterday is an exciting and necessary change. Now that this change is official many of you have question about where we go from here. In an effort to help bring you all up to speed we are sending you this update. The next step will be a general meeting for all of the 028 members. This date will be coming soon. This meeting will introduce UPEC officially and they will be available to answer those questions. They will line out additional meetings toward collection of your input toward the contract that they will negotiate on our behalf.

One of the most asked questions I have received has been regarding fees and membership. Let me first explain that UPEC membership dues are only $37.50 per month and is then divided into pay periods. It is important to have as many employees in the bargaining unit become members so that the County will recognize the strength that our group has in numbers. If you want to sign up, then please see me or George Gomez. We have the forms that you need to sign.

If you have further immediate questions that you would like addressed please feel free to contact UPEC Representatives directly at one of the following email addresses:

tlidie@upec792.com

cdarker@upec792.com

steveallen@upec792.com

Thank you

Representation Election

The election results are in.

Out of 278 people, 175 voted and the 105 were in favor of UPEC; 70 voted for No Organization.

TIME AND PLACE OF ELECTION

DATE: Wednesday, April 6, 2011
TIMES & LOCATIONS:
7:30 am to 10:00am
Prospect Park
3075 Prospect Park, Suite 170

11:00am to 1:00pm
Bradshaw
4100 Traffic Way

3:00pm to 5:30pm
Voter Registration
7000 65th Street

DATE: Thursday, April 7, 2011
TIMES & LOCATIONS:
7:30am to 11:00am
County Administration
700 H Street, Lobby

Meeting with California Mediation Service

Today UPEC 792 LiUNA and several DPPA Board members meet with the State of California Mediation Service about the election to vote on Representation. It was decided that the election will be held Wednesday and Thursday, April 6th and 7th, 2011. Tentatively it will be held in four locations, and I will give you more when everything has been decided. But hold open these two days to vote.

028 Representation Election

There has been some misinformation that has been put out to some employees of 028 in regards to what the result of 028 representation would be. The DPPA Board would like to clarify the costs and benefits of 028 representation election. If, in the coming weeks, United Public Employees of California, Local 792 (UPEC) is elected to represent 028 members, the dues for those employees that join would be $37.50 per month. UPEC has been putting a lot of time and effort in informing us as to what to expect from representation, including the organizational structure, handling of 028 group and individual issues, and contract negotiations. Representation does not mean that we will get everything we want, or be exempt from effects of the county budget crisis, but it will allow us to negotiate and have a voice concerning the work environment, salary, benefits, retirement, and other issues that affect 028 members.

Last Meeting with the CIO

On February 8th, 2011 in the afternoon, I had my last meeting with David Villanueva, the CIO of the County. I offered congratulations on his new job as the Administrator of Internal Services Agency. He is going to start on Monday, February 14th, 2011 and he is leaving the IT world much better than he found it. David said that there is not going to a replacement due to the pitfalls that await the new CIO and that might be someone who is applying for the job.

The next agenda item was DPPA Representation Election. It is still unclear when the election will take place, due to the other County unions trying to get 10% of 028 signatures to get on the ballot. DPPA has unanimously agreed with what the committee recommended which was UPEC (United Public Employees of California, Local 792) and laid out our course. On Friday, February 11th, 2011 the County will be able to go to the California State Mediation and Conciliation Service to schedule the election.

Then I asked about the ‘IT Classifications and Civil Service’ one more time. This is posted on dppa.org as ‘TRG "DRAFT" Meeting MINUTES - Tuesday, November 16, 2010’ and all 028 employees should take a look at it. Since January 18th, 2011, the last time I called a meeting with him and Rami, they had another meeting that told them that the County has written into its Charter that employees has the right of Civil Service and it would take a vote by the people of Sacramento to change it.

As for the Budget, David said that he doesn’t see any layoffs in the new year; but the Governors budget is still in question.

DPPA has enjoyed the meetings with the CIO and wishes him the best of luck.

IT Classifications & Civil Service

This morning I had a meeting with both David Villanueva, the CIO, and Rami Zakaria, Cheif of e-Government and Business Services, about the TRG minutes item #3 - IT Classification & Civil Service. Rami said that all County employees, with very few exceptions, have Civil Service in the County Charter and to make 028 employees 'at-will' would take a vote by the people of Sacramento County.

They reiterated that these meeting were just an 'out-of-the-box' effort to see what would be possible in the future for everything involved with IT. This suggestion was just that and the effort that they would have to go through would be enormous and would take quite a while to complete.

But, I support the DPPA Board's decision to put this out to dppa.org to keep all employees up to speed on what is being descussed at the County level about 028 positions.

'Showing of Interest' Card

In the mailing that went out November 8th, 2010, the 'Proof of Employee Support' is a 'Showing of Interest' card, not a vote on the matter. If the employees of 028 return thirty percent or more of the 'Proof of Employee Support' cards, then UPEC can petition with Sacramento County Labor Relations for a vote to become our union. Then, between December 1st, 2010 and April 15th, 2011, is the time for the vote.

Findings of the 028 Organizing Research Committee

At the DPPA Board Meeting today the DPPA Board unanimously approved what the 028 Organizing Research Committee recommends. That Unit 028 employees seek to attain formal recognition status with UPEC 792 as the Recognized Employee Organization.

There will be more in the next few weeks.

Status of Efforts to become a Union

Back on July 14^th, 2010, when we had our 028 meeting, the result was the election of the ‘028 Collective Bargaining Research Committee’ with Steve Souza as the head of the committee.

One thing they did was to insure that no members came from the DPPA Board, except for Steve Souza who had just joined and did not know most of the history of DPPA. Steve also did not get a chance to vote on the committee.

The committee had to decide what was going on the ballot when we petitioned Labor Relations for a vote on 028 Representation. The committee had many meetings which I don’t know about except for August 11^th, 2010. In that meeting they asked DPPA 28 questions that they thought were important to having DPPA being a Recognized Employee Organization (REO). I went and gave them written answers and found out that they had scheduled October 6^th, 2010 to be done and come before the DPPA Board to tell us what they had found out.

Then the DPPA Board would have two months before the December 1^st – December 20^th, 2010 period in which 028 could go and petition Labor Relations for a vote to take place between December 1^st and April 10^th to determine whether 028 would be unionized. Then if 028 decided that their unit should be a REO, 028 will have to get prepared to negotiate the new contract to be in effect July of 2011.

You will be all contacted by the State Agency that holds the election probably in January 2011.

Letter to all Employees from the CEO

Dear County Employee,

This week, we begin hearings for our Final Budget for FY 2010-11. Despite tremendous challenges, including multiple lawsuits, we have balanced our budget, pending impacts from the state budget.

We are making about $30M in adjustments to our June budget. The adjustments are fully funded and will not automatically add to any future budget debt. The adjustments are a combination of $30M in costs, combined with $30M in additional funds, netting out to zero change to our overall budget. The major sources of funds include carryover, fund balances, reserves from the Teeter fund, Capital Construction funds and Transient Occupancy Tax.

We are expecting some reductions from the state in specific services and are monitoring their activities closely. Any further reductions will most likely be department specific; i.e. if the State cuts “Program A” spending, then we would cut that program accordingly. It is still too soon to predict what the state will do, and when we know what the impacts will be, we will amend the FY 10-11 Budget as necessary.

During the last two years we have made some difficult choices in order to balance our budget and help create long term stability for our organization. Since FY 07/08, we’ve reduced the overall size of our budget by 31%; from $5.08B to $3.5B this year. Since FY 07/08 the size of our work force has been reduced by about 22%; from 14,500 FTE to 11,265 FTE.

Though these choices have not been easy, and we are still grappling with the changes, reducing the size of our organization was absolutely necessary. I thank all of you for persevering during these changes and remaining committed to preserving quality County services.

Steve Szalay

Recommended Position Changes - No 028 Affected

I just received the 'Recommended Position Changes' for the final budget which the Board of Supervisor's will be hearing on Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 at 2 pm. These are new cuts that the County is recommending to make up for the two lawsuits that were settled against the County. There are no 028 layoffs this go around.

DPPA Meeting with the CIO

Notes

Ø Feedback on OCIT meeting …

1. I told David Villanueva that I thought he is doing real well, probably the best CIO that I have seen for the County.

2. We covered what the OCIT All meeting would do for DPPA in the future.

Ø DPPA Representation Election

1. I told David about what had happened with the committee that will take the job of getting the ballot filled out.

2. David told us he would tell OCIT All about the vote when it happened.

Ø Budget

1. David told us the County was going to go ahead with finalizing their budget on September 7 – 9 no matter what the State does. If the State has not decided by then, the County will pass the budget and if the State takes away any money, then the Board of Supervisors will just adjust the budget at this point of time.

Ø Open Session

1. Allocated Cost Package (ACP) – Made up of four main categories; Communication Center, Debt Service (Building), The Service Desk and the Data Center (servers on the sixth floor of OCIT) which were billed by FTE (Full Time Equivalences). He said the ACP was being looked at by the representatives of the County and that it could change in the new year.

2. When asked about whether OCIT is going to Windows 7 David said yes, but the all the moving at OCIT had taken precedence and the kick off teams will get notified soon. But he said that was really the TRG territory.

3. There was talk of Cell Phones and what the new devices would mean to Blackberry’s hold on security.

4. Then David told us of the Coroner, SDA and ISA. All of these departments have come looking for services from OCIT.

028 Organizing Committee 2010-08-11 Kickoff Meeting Minutes

The 028 Organizing Research Committee met on 8/11. The committee established its charter as that of objectively researching each of the four options outlined on the Show of Interest cards recently submitted by more than 37% of the 028 members. The four organizing options being evaluated are:

1. Do nothing and remain unrepresented, with DPPA remaining as an unrecognized "Employee Association", with no bargaining rights

2. Have 028 form a union of its own under the auspices of DPPA

3. Join the union recently formed by SCMA to cover County management

4. Join UPEC Local 792 (not affiliated with UPE)

Committee volunteers were selected and the committee formed. The committee members are: Nancy Arkelian, Rich Reed, Elliott Quave, Kelly Newell, Paul Vaca, Susan Lew, Judy Adolph, Teryl Parnell, and Steve Souza (non-voting member).

It was decided by the committee that Local 39 had been sufficiently dismissed by the membership in the last circulation of show of interest cards, that the committee will not reevaluate the merits of Local 39.

It was decided by the committee to limit to one the number of DPPA Board members on the committee. That single DPPA member will be a non-voting member of the committee. The reasons discussed were those of committee objectivity and impartiality. Two of the options being evaluated for inclusion on the ballot (options 1 and 2 above) involve DPPA directly.

Subcommittees were selected to research, evaluate, and report back to the committee on their respective organizing option from among the four listed. Prior to the next meeting, meetings will be held with SCMA representatives and representatives from UPEC.

The next meeting will be held on Sept. 7th, 2010. At that time the committee will discuss the findings of the respective subcommittees and begin the process of 1) formulating recommendations regarding what is to be included on the organizing ballot, and 2) documenting all significant facts, both pro and con that the committee finds regarding each of the options evaluated.

The Return Address is wrong on the Mailing

The Zip Code on the 'Showing of Interest' mailing is wrong. The Zip Code should be 95812.

Elect Committee - Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

I have appointed Steve Sousa chairman of the committee to evaluate the options from the 'Showing of Interest ...' form. At this 028 Employee meeting we want people that are in favor of doing at least one of the options for forming an REO. We don't want people who want "No Organization"; which has to be on the ballot at all times. If you want to have a say in how 028 would perform in the future, now is the time to come and volunteer.

Tentative Plan for Representation of 028

I respect all of you for getting involved in the history changing times that we are going through. I felt that I ought to give you the following which is my tentative plan for going forward.

• Meet with Steve Keil, from Labor Relations, this Friday (7/23/2010) to get the issues with ‘Showing of Interest …’ resolved.

• Get the thirty percent of Representation Unit 028 to sign the 'Showing of Interest ...' to give us the go ahead to proceed.

• If we get the go ahead, have the first meeting where we will elect the committee to determine what 028 does in getting represented.

• Then when the committee has decided what 028 employees want, we will petition Labor Relations between December 1st and December 20th, 2010 to form a Recognized Employee Organization (REO).

• At this point we will have a vote to see if Representation Unit 028 agrees with what the committee has determined to be the course that 028 takes.

• Then if 028 employees agree with what the committee had decided, we will start the long process of getting organized for the new employment contacts which will take place before July 2011.

Fact Finding Meeting - Agenda

Fact Finding Meeting
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 @5 – 7 pm
Agenda
5:00 pm - Sign in
5:05 pm - Sacramento County REO – Benefits and Salary Survey
5:15 pm – Service Award Program Proposal
5:30 pm – Robert Purcell - United Public Employees of California, Local 792
6:30 pm – Alternatives
Open Session

July 14th, 2010 - Meeting of 028 ...

On Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 from 5 - 7 pm we are pleased to have the Robert Purcell, of the United Public Employees of California, Local 792 come and tell us what it would be like to join his Union. It will be in OCIT 221, the same place as the other two fact finding meetings. This is probably going to be the last meeting we will have before we decide what we are going to do in the future. So if you have something to say, this is going to be your last chance to be heard before we go ahead. So mark the date and come and join us for a lively meeting.

Meeting on June 30th, 2010

On June 30th, 2010 from 5 - 7 pm we are going to have the second meeting of 028 members in OCIT Room 221. This meeting will have SCMA Board members Rosemary Vaske and Lynn Wynn present to answer questions we may have on what they are doing now that they are a union. They will also be joined by Jason Jasmine from Carroll, Burdick and McDonough - he is the attorney that helped guide them through the process (CBM also represents the attorneys and the accountants bargaining units). This will be the time when you can ask questions and hopefully get answers.

June 9th, 2010 Meeting

There is going to be a meeting that is going to held in OCIT Room 221 on June 9th, 2010 from 5 - 7 pm. This is going to be a meeting that is for 028 employees, not just DPPA members. The forum of the meeting is going to be a quick talk by the President about where we are right now. Then it is going to turned over to you to be able to get up and have five minutes to get your point across. Then when everyone is done, we would have a discussion of what we have heard and where we are going to go in the new year.

Use Forum to Communicate

We now have the Forum setup so you fellow 028 employees can communicate to us at DPPA. You have to register so that the admins can check to make sure you are an 028 employee and this might delay you for a maximum of a day. But then you will be able to communicate anything and we will be able to see it.

Furloughs Voted Down

At the noon meeting of the DPPA Board members today the issue did not get enough votes to support the issue of furloughs for OCIT members.

That means that OCIT employees from Representation Unit 028 cannot offer to go on furloughs to save jobs as a whole. That does not mean that Board of Supervisor’s will not specify furloughs for unrepresented positions that do not save positions in our department. DPPA could be represented if we had voted to see if a union could have been formed.

Vote on Furloughs

By the end of this week DPPA Board has to decide whether we approve or disapprove of the furloughs that have been proposed for OCIT. This will save 2 -3 positions. If you can let me know what you think by emailing me at President@dppa.org that will help us make the right choice.

COLA and Furlough ...

As of today, we received a letter from Linda Eto detailing that DPPA has agreed to mandatory furlough of one day per month in Fiscal Year 2010-11 for all employees in DPPA who work in Office of Communications and Information Technology. This will be the same as last year except that the furlough time will not be Retirement applicable as it was in 2009-10. That means that for every pay period that we take a furlough, we will only get 72, instead of 80, service credits for Retirement. This will be included in the budget document to be approved by the Board of Supervisors' for the 2010-11 year.

No COLA, but Furloughs might happen ...

Last night, it was decided that unrepresented employees (028 are still unrepresented - no union) will not get a COLA in the 2010-11 fiscal year. It does not look like this will save department jobs.

However, furloughs can save jobs in the individual departments. We are talking with Linda Eto, Steve Keil's right hand person, about getting furloughs in at least OCIT and possibly other departments. It is still undecided whether this will be individual employees or whether it is going to be all employees who work for a department. Email me at President@dppa.org if you want to express your feelings.

I will of course keep you informed of what is happening as we go forward.

Meeting with Steve Keil

Steve Keil, the Director of Labor Relations, called a meeting to keep us informed of what is happening in the County. He told Logan Pratt, the Vice-President of DPPA, and me about all the layoffs this year, but he was optimistic about next year. He didn’t see growth, but at least he foretold of budgets flattening out and not the steep downward structure that has become too familiar. For this next fiscal year, I told him that DPPA would support one day of furlough per month if it could save positions. He was very grateful about this and said he would figure out who could be saved.

Status

The first item to pass along to you is that SCMA (Sacramento County Management Association) is now a union. In their election they had 459 ballots cast and 278 voted for unionization (60.6% of the vote) and only 181 voted against it (39.4%). SCMA got more than 30% of the members of Representation 050 voted in favor of having a vote to see if they support unionization back in December and then yesterday they had the final vote for SCMA. However back in December DPPA only got 61 votes, when we needed 91, so we couldn’t put the issue before Representation Unit 028. So DPPA remains a non-negotiating Employee Association.

Now the next thing is the layoffs that are going to happen starting in the next Fiscal Year. In July, it has already been decided that eight members of Representation Unit 028 will be laid off.

The Departments are:

1. Admin Services – 2


2. Dept Of Finance – 1


3. Health / Human Services – 3


4. OCIT – 2

Now in addition the Department of Labor Relation has asked OCIT and ISA to come up with 20% more cuts that are due today. This is going to mean more layoffs if the cuts are accepted.

DPPA would like to know what you think should be done to come up with the money that the County needs. You can respond to President@dppa.org and tell me if you are for:

1. Keeping the COLA, which will require people to be laid off; although the Board of Supervisors makes the final decision even though they promised to give us 2% - 5% of the Consumer Price Index for March?


2. Or give up the COLA, in last year that we have the promise, to save jobs?

We have to be aware that last year the Board of Supervisors cut our COLA without even talking to us because DPPA is non-negotiating Employee association.

Executive Management Meeting

This has been a week of meetings with the Executive Management of the County. On Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010, Logan Pratt and I met with the CIO, David Villanueva. Then on Friday, March 5th, 2010, I met with the COO, Nav Gill and Director of Labor Relations, Steve Keil and the CIO again to find out where we stand with the Budget and IT Consolidation.

They told me that with the mid-year budget cuts, that the Board of Supervisors just passed, we only have a Budget shortfall for the new Fiscal year of $130 million rather than $140 million. It still looks like this year is going to be bad but they were hopeful that it was bottoming out and hopefully we will see the Budget increase in the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

They stated that they were not going to do things like they did last year with the COLA and Furloughs. That unless the REO (the Unions) give up their COLA and/or take Furloughs they did not feel that it was right to impose it on DPPA.

The new CEO, Steve Szalay, has not supported the IT Consolidation yet and David said that without Executive Sponsorship he would not pursue it.

On March 11th, 2010, DPPA Board Members are going to get to meet and greet the new CEO, Steve Szalay.

David Villanueva, the CIO, asked me to ask people in Representative Unit 028 to email him at CIO@saccounty.net with their ideas on cost saving.

Joint Labor Management Meeting

I was invited to Sacramento County Joint Labor Management meeting today to see what the state of the County Budget is for the next couple of years. This meeting was called by Steve Keil, the Director of Labor Relations, for all the Recognized Employee Organizations (REO). The County Leadership Group put together by Steve Szalay, the Interim County CEO, was in attendance. This group contained Steve Szalay; Nav Gill, Chief Operations Officer; Mark Norris, Administrator of Internal Services Agency; Jan Scully, Sacramento County District Attorney; Sheriff John McGinness; Robert A. Ryan, Jr., County Counsel; Paul Hahn, Municipal Services Agency Administrator and Bruce Wagstaff, Countywide Services Agency Administrator. This was the first of future monthly meetings that are for open discussions of what lies ahead for the County Budget and how it will affect County workers.

In the meeting, Management gave out a real rough estimate of where it looks like the County Budget will be for the next four years. For next fiscal year starting in July of 2010, if they remove the furloughs and give us our COLA, they estimate the number of layoffs would be about 550 people Countywide but only 12.6 positions in Data Processing with only 7.2 positions in the General Fund. This is very early but I thought you ought to know about what is being talked about now.

If you have any insight into solving the budget shortfall, please email me at President@dppa.org so I can have your ideas at the next Joint Labor Management meeting which will take place on February 17th, 2010.

Final Count for Unionization

The final count of employees in Representative Unit 028 who were in favor of unionization was 72.  Because we did not get the 91 votes necessary to call for an election, Data Processing Professionals Association is still just like it was; the non-negotiating employee association for at least another year.

Unionization

At the DPPA Board Meeting yesterday we totaled up the number of responses that were mailed to DPPA in favor of Unionization. We only came up with 67, out of 91 we needed to call for a vote. We have until December 15th, 2009 to wait and see if we get the extra 24 votes.

CIO Meeting

Logan Pratt and I met with the CIO David Villanueva today.

The items we talked about were:

1. Overhead Study – This was kicked off just recently and has Information Technology (IT) as one of the items to be studied. David told us that he would keep us apprised of what happens.
   
   
   
   


2. Informational Security - David wanted our opinion on cell phone access to County data. We admitted that it was a real problem that needed attention. David has not decided what he will do but he told us he would keep us in the loop.
   
   
   
   


3. Budget - David told us that the proposed budget would be 100 Million dollars in the red. He said that $100 Million has the COLA included, which will be 2 – 5% raise in pay starting in July 2010. And that there were no furloughs in the next fiscal year. We can only hope that the CEO Cabinet does not take away the COLA and put us on furloughs like they did this year. It would be at least in January 2010 when David and the other CEO Cabinet members would make the decisions on the budget for fiscal year 2010 to 2011.
   
   
   
   


4. IT Consolidation - This generated a lot of talk. Because the money has not come through yet to fund the study of IT Consolidation, it is still a ‘big black hole’. David said as much and he also said he may not support IT Consolidation when the study comes in. DPPA Board supported the concept of the IT Consolidation, with the understanding that if and when the IT Consolidation study gets done DPPA Board may not support all of it. The reason that David asked us for our support of the concept of the IT Consolidation was to get approval for the study. We think it would offer employees better advancement because the career paths would be better in a larger organization. If the study gets going in the next couple of months we will see if the DPPA Board still supports it.

IT Consolidation

Last week, when Logan and I had our meeting with the CIO David Villanueva, he asked us if DPPA was in favor of the IT Consolidation. I told him I would have to ask the DPPA Board in our next meeting whether they supported it. The DPPA Board meeting was a few days later and the DPPA Board Members all gave their support for IT Consolidation. If anybody does not agree with what the DPPA Board voted on the IT Consolidation, then write an email to President@dppa.org and tell me why you don’t support the plan. I would like all thoughts as we are going into this tough subject in the next few months.

 

CEO Cabinet Meeting

The DPPA Vice President in waiting, Logan Pratt and I met with the CEO, Terry Schutten; the COO, Nav Gil; the CIO, David Villanueva; Steve Keil, the Director of Labor Relations and Mark Norris, the Agency Administrator – Internal Services Agency on November 4th, 2009.

We talked about many things but the one that is important is the Budget for 2010 to 2011. Although they don’t know how bad it is going to be, they are projecting the budget to fall as much as it did this year. We are going to have another meeting in March when they should know more about what is going to happen in the next fiscal year.

They said that they look for at least two more bad years ahead because the County is always one year behind the State and it looks like the State is going to have another tough year.

REO Meeting

Don’t panic; Representation Unit 028 only lost 1.8 positions in this go around of the budget. That is right, only 1.8 filled positions are scheduled to be laid off this September; one IT Technician II and 0.8 of a Geographic Info System Analyst II.

In this Budgetary Meeting with the Recognized Employee Organizations (REO) Steve Keil, the Director of Labor Relations, made his current proposal known about the budget. In that proposal, the County would delete most represented employee positions (with some exceptions) on November 7th, 2009. Representation Unit 028 is considered

un-represented by Labor Relations and would not be impacted by this proposal. All impacted employees would then be asked to rehire into a part time .908 position. This would mean that they would have a reduction in work days of 24 days per year. Unrepresented employees who have been denied their COLA increases and who are subject to monthly furloughs would be exempt from this proposal. That means everybody who is in Representation Unit 028 is exempt.

The other item he shared with us is the new layoffs, which at this point include 379 FTE (full time Employee) positions, with 349.5 filled positions of which Representation Unit 028 has only 1.8 positions. If this proposal gets passed by the Board of Supervisor’s on September 10th, 2009 the impacted layoffs would happen September 26th, 2009. This is going public on August 28th, 2009.

Meeting with the CIO

In this meeting with David Villanueva, the CIO of the County, we talked about the Budget and the IT Consolidation.

Tomorrow, David is going to the Board of Supervisor’s (BOS) meeting to find out how the County is going to pay for the ten million dollars that the BOS promised the Sheriff. He was hopeful that IT would not lose any more money. Then we talked about what the State of California had decided last night in its agreement on how to close the $26.3 billion budget gap. For the County it looks like it will mean $52 million in further cuts. It was too early to tell if that reduction would have any repercussions with IT.

When I asked if the IT Consolidation would be finished in December 2009, David said that there were two reasons that it might not be done as he had suggested last month. The fact that it was now considered to be a five month job, instead of three, and that the money has to come from someplace. He thought that this was going to require another BOS meeting to get it kicked off.

Regarding Medical Supplement for Retirees

In this meeting with Steve Keil, the Director of Labor Relations, I asked about SEIU lawsuit which they had won with regarding medical supplement for Retirees. Steve came back and said that the Court said the County had to make payment to the Retirees, it did not say how much. He said the County would have to go back to the Court and ask how much. While it looks like we may have won be prepared for an extended Court battle.

Labor Relations Meeting

Today I had a meeting with Steve Keil, the Director of Labor Relations and David Villanueva, the CIO of the County. We talked about the Contractors that were left after July 4th, 2009.

Thank you to all the County Employees who had taken time to send me the names of the contractors who were still working. These were the bulk of the contractors that I asked Steve Keil about. Steve Keil listened to what I had to say and he told me he would look into all the cases that I had reported to him. I will know more in a matter of a week or more and will report that to you.

Meeting: Exemption for Contractors

I requested a meeting with Steve Keil to talk about the 71J Contractor exemption. He has setup a meeting on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 2:45pm with DPPA and the CIO, David Villanueva. We want to make sure that if IT Analysts got laid off any contractors who are still working for the County had a good exemption. I will put up another President’s News after we have this meeting to tell you what I found out.

COLAs and Furloughs for Unrepresented

Per a document published on 6/24/09 by the Department of Personnel Services titled : BUDGET DECISIONS IMPACTING SOME UNREPRESENTED POSITIONS.

COLAs - In December 2006, the Board of Supervisors approved a five-year plan that gave unrepresented employees automatic cost-of-living increases each year. While the first three years of the plan have been implemented, the Board approved waiving COLA increases in FY 2009/10 for unrepresented employees in units 028, 060, and 080.

Furloughs - Beginning July 1, 2009, and effective through June 19, 2010, each full-time unrepresented employee in units 028, 060, and 080 will be required to take one unpaid furlough day per month (12 total). Employees will be required to use all furlough days by June 30, 2010. Employees who have received approval to have their work schedule reduced to less than full-time are not required to take furlough days.

For purposes of calculating employer and employee contributions to the Sacramento County Employees Retirement System (SCERS), and for purposes of calculating employee and employer contributions, service credits, and retirement benefits under SCERS, the furloughs will have no effect on the affected classifications.

This document can be downloaded through a link on the DPPA website.

Meeting with the CIO and Labor Relations

Steve Keil setup a meeting today, June 19th, 2009 at 2pm with the CIO, David Villanueva, and DPPA to talk about what the Board of Supervisors had done last week. In this meeting Labor Relations told us the Board had made the decision to take away the COLA and impose a monthly furlough for Representation Unit 028 and give us nothing in return. I had hoped that the money saved would go back to the departments from which it came. Unfortunately that is not the case. The money goes back to the General Fund to be used however the Board of Supervisor’s decides.

Board of Supervisor’s decision

As you are all aware from reading the CEO’s message yesterday, the Board of Supervisors has added Representation Unit 028 (Date Processing Professionals Association), 060 (Administrative) and 080 (Unrepresented) to what the Managers have already accepted in April which is monthly furloughs and elimination of the cost of living (COLA) that we were expecting in July 2009. This is not final until the Board has voted on the new budget.

 

Received Lay-Off Document

Last Friday, June 5th, 2009, I received a document that had the lay-offs positions; not the people; of Representation Unit 028, which is the group of people that Data Processing Professionals Association (DPPA) covers. There were 12.2 filled positions to be let go. These were broken down by Departments:

1. 0.4 – Clerk of the Board / Board of Supervisors


2. 0.8 – Planning Comm / Dev


3. 5.0 – Health and Human Services


4. 4.0 – O.C.I.T. (Communication & Info Technology)


5. 2.0 – Human Assistance / Administration

This is the fourth version of this document that I had received and the number has gone down with every one, from 16.8 to 15.8 and now 12.2.

Meeting with David Villanueva and Steve Keil

I had a meeting with David Villanueva, the CIO, and Steve Keil, the Director of Labor Relations, on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:30pm. One of the items we discussed was the DPPA proposal to take furloughs to save positions that are scheduled to be laid off. At the last meeting, Steve Keil said that we could not take the dollars saved in the whole Representation Unit of 028 by furloughs and apply the money to the 15.8 positions to be laid off in Representation Unit 028. We would have to do it on department basis. That is, each department could save dollars by having workers in Representation Unit 028 take furloughs and then that money could be used to stop the layoffs of people in Representation Unit 028 in that department.

Steve Keil gave me a Personnel Budget Report for Representation Unit 028 that was sorted by Departments for Fiscal Year 2009-10. With this in hand, I redid the calculations for each department and he right; there was not one department that could save enough money from furloughs to save any positions that were to be laid off in that department.

So it looks like people in Representation Unit 028 will keep their COLA and Step Increases and will not be on furloughs. We will know for sure on June 17 – 18th, 2009 when the Board of Supervisors approves the Budget for Fiscal Year 2009-10.

Meeting with Steve Keil

Steve Keil postponed our meeting until Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm.

 

Meeting with Steve Keil

I had a good meeting with Steve Keil, the Director of Labor Relations this afternoon.

First of all, this morning I received the proposed layoffs for all County Employees, except for elected offices.  For DPPA the projected positions to cut were 16.8.  I also got a copy of the report that showed what each representative unit, of which DPPA is 028, could save if they gave up the COLA, Step Increases, and went on furlough.  I used this to calculate what we would have to give up to save our positions.

Furlough for fourteen days - $1,392.272 (just like the Managers)

Step Increase postponed for 2 years - $865,200

But we would save our COLA

Total cuts: $2,257,492

Positions proposed to lose is 16.8

Say $100,000 per position: $1,680,000

Total giving back to the County: $2,257,492 - $1,680,000 = $577,492 (to save 5 – 6 jobs elsewhere)

My suggestion would be that we would give up fourteen days in the next fourteen months in furlough and the step increases will be postponed for two years so that no one would be laid off. But we would keep our 2.9% COLA.

Steve Keil said he could not agree without talking to the many departments that have IT, but he would call in the Department Heads and see if they would accept this proposal.  He said he would call another meeting with me in a few weeks. So hold on.

Budget Update

Today I was asked to join the CIO in a meeting where I was told of the latest budget shortfall. The CIO was told that the OCIT request for $16 million for Shared Systems was cut to $8.1 million. The Shared Systems have received around 15 – 17 million in past years. Shared System is one of the budget items that keep OCIT afloat. We will know more on April 20th, 2009 when all budgets are due back. It does not look to good for OCIT in keeping all County Employees. Please see the CIO letter ‘Note from the CIO - Budget Impacts’.

Meeting with the CIO

Today John Culbert, the vice President of DPPA, and I met with the CIO, David Villanueva, to discuss the IT Consolidation and the Budget for next fiscal year. The Consolidation RFD is due today, March 23rd, 2009, at 3 pm. David says that his team will decide who gets the award within 3 weeks and then whoever is accepted will have 120 days to complete the recommendations for Consolidation of IT.

The Budget for the next fiscal year is 168.5 million dollars short fall over this year’s budget. We were real lucky that David Villanueva was able to save the one IT employee that was cut this year. But starting in the next fiscal year we have to come up with a lot of money. Unfortunately, the contractors will probably go, but that may not be enough. Be prepared for a bumpy year ahead.

Meeting of the Consolidation of Information Technology Team

Today I was invited to go to the meeting with the Consolidation of Information Technology Team. In this meeting David Villanueva, the Chief Information Officer, introduced all the team members; Rob Schultz from DHA, Ray Reis from DHHS, Jeff Leveroni from MSA; Rami Zakaria, Debra Nadolna, Chuck Parker, Jim Reiner and Alan Douma from OCIT, Cynthia Silver from ISA and Craig Rader from Purchasing. Each member got up and gave what their tasks were.

The Team has already done considerable thinking on what they want to see in the new structure. What they came up with were four groupings, Infrastructure, Application, Service Desk and Office of the CIO. They are hiring a consultant; that has done similar consolidations; to study what the County has now and recommend the new IT structure. They are doing this so they can get it done right the first time and not waste a lot of time redoing steps.

The CIO and all the members of the Consolidation of Information Technology Team talked of a new Information Technology Structure; not OCIT; that everybody would be moved into. They are not doing a critic of the jobs that all of you are doing, simply redoing the structure of your managers and where you might sit. I felt real good that they are doing a necessary job, despite what the Budget says.

They are looking on having this new structure figured out by the first of the fiscal year.

Consolidation of Information Technology Services

David Villanueva, the County Chief Information Officer, just met with me to share information about the state the County is in financially. He told me that the County Chief Executive Officer, Terry Schutten, told him to undertake development of a plan for the consolidation of Information Technology Services. David said he strongly supports the people who work in the IT field and wants to insure that they all stay employed with as little disturbance as possible.

Budget Update

I have been invited to three Budget meetings in the last couple of weeks to be kept abreast of what is happening with the County of Sacramento in these dire times. And yesterday, in our DPPA Board meeting, Steve Keil, the Assistant to the County Executive for Labor Policy and Negotiations, came and gave the Board the information that he had at that time. I thought I ought to put out what we have been told.

The layoffs have been reduced from 156.6 to 19.5 positions. Probation, which had 76 layoff positions last week, is still a question mark. At this point, nobody could really could tell us what is happening to this department. In the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) the layoffs of County employees are down to 12.5 from 61.6 last week with three positions near layoff status. DHHS let go their contract staff to allow the reductions in permanent staff layoffs. Department of Revenue Recovery, a new department with layoffs, will lose 4 positions. As you can see it’s not a done deal; but it is nice to be kept in touch with what Steve Keil and the other managers have been thinking.

The good news is that there are no positions in Representation Unit 028 (these are the people who DPPA represents) on the current layoff list.

The last Budget meeting I went to asked all the Recognized Employee Organization (REO) to consider four options that would reduce County costs. They were Cost of Living Concession, Step Increase Concession, Work Furloughs and Reduced Work Hours. I’ll be sending an email to those of you who gave us your home email to ask for what you think. If you have not given us your home email, just click on Contacts and send us an email from your email, and you will be added.

The managers, who have to make the decisions about employee layoffs, all have the thought of County Executive Terry Schutten foremost in their minds; "Our focus has been on saving jobs. We need employees to deliver our services to our customers. So many people depend on us."

I will post items as they become available.