UPDATE ON BUDGET DEVELOPMENTS AND NOTICE OF THE PENDING LAYOFFS

The YCEA Committee appointed by President Robin Timoszyk met with the County on Friday, May 28, to continue our discussions regarding possible options for restructuring our contract. The County and YCEA exchanged conceptual options to mitigate the impact on next year's budget. The parties did not reach any consensus. It was the County's position that restructuring the contract would not eliminate the necessity for some layoffs.

Executive Director Gary Stucky appeared before the Board of Supervisors (BOS) on Tuesday, June 1, to advise the BOS that YCEA did not wish to see any one lose their job, but if cuts were necessary that layoffs should occur as far away from the delivery of service as possible. He reminded the BOS that it would take the reduction of more lower-level positions in order to make up the budget deficit and that layoffs at the rank-and-file level would further impact the workload that employees are already handling. He submitted a letter to the BOS a few days later with an attached list of management and administrative positions that the County should consider cutting before reducing rank-and-file positions.

On June 7, YCEA Past President Ryan McNally and Gary Stucky met with representatives from the Personnel Department and Department representatives from Administrative Services and the Library to discuss the County's position regarding the reduction of hours of some employees and a pending decision to outsource some work in Administrative Services. YCEA is evaluating the County’s pending decision pertaining to outsourcing of work and preparing a formal proposal regarding the rights of employees who are affected by a reduction in their hours.

The YCEA Committee met with the County again on June 8, to continue our discussions regarding restructuring of our existing contract. We were advised that the County's other labor groups were close to agreement on a multiyear understanding that would defer the scheduled salary adjustments. YCEA has presented an option for the County's consideration, which will be reviewed with the BOS at their meeting on June 15, in the morning. The YCEA Committee is scheduled to meet with the County the afternoon of June 15, to receive a response regarding the option we presented. Based upon the County's response, subsequent membership meetings and further information will be disseminated to the membership ASAP after that meeting.

YCEA has also received notification of the County's decision to proceed with issuing layoff notices to employees for layoffs to be effective June 30. YCEA has not been given a list of the affected employees nor have the specific positions targeted for layoff been shared with YCEA. Since a number of the employees who will receive an initial layoff notice have bumping rights, the County is issuing layoff notices to those employees who may be affected by the bumping rights of other employees who have greater seniority. YCEA has requested a list of those employees who have been issued a layoff notice and a copy of the seniority list for the employees in classifications affected by this layoff decision. The purpose for requesting this information is to be able to resolve potential questions regarding seniority credit and bumping rights. YCEA has also requested a copy of the layoff notice issued to employees and the related packet of information. It is our understanding that the County is working in cooperation with the County Superintendent of Schools to coordinate a Rapid Response Team for the purpose of assisting employees affected by this layoff. The Rapid Response Team is scheduling a meeting at the Yuba County One-Stop to meet with affected employees. Affected employees should watch for separate notification of this meeting.

YCEA has scheduled a meeting for affected employees to be held on Wednesday, June 16, 5:15 PM at the One-Stop, in the large conference room (Beckwourth Room) on the second floor. The purpose of this meeting will be to answer general questions and to identify individual issues that need to be addressed with the County. YCEA will be providing separate notice and/or contacting affected members to make sure they are informed about this meeting. This is a meeting exclusively for affected employees that have received a layoff notice.

Thank you for your patience. We will try to share information

as it becomes available.