'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.