Quick Notes to YCEA Site Representatives

June 10, 2008

Meet and Confer

We concluded our meet and confer with the County regarding office closure/work cessation agreement YCEA Board of Directors have approved the tentative agreement. The County is in the process of finalizing the agreement in MOU format, which then be approved by the Board of Supervisors. The office closure/work cessation agreement will ensure employees receive compensation without a deduction from their leave balances when the County administrator due to conditions requiring work cessation sends them home due to electrical outages or other decisions. Details of the agreement will be disseminated to our site representatives after the agreement is finalized. The details on the agreement will be reported in the newsletter, once the agreement has been finalized. Marie is also in the final stages of negotiating the same provisions with the Courts.

Membership Picnic

Our picnic is scheduled for Saturday, June 28 at the Sutter/Yuba fairgrounds. The gate will open at 11:00 a.m. and lunch will be served approximately at 12 noon. The menu will be hamburgers and hot dogs and BBQ Seasoned/fried chicken, with potato and macaroni salad and other goodies. The also be serving soft drinks and beer. There will be activities for the kids, a jump house and door prizes. We're limiting this to the immediate family meaning those living in the household. Cost is $2.00 per adult (18 and older) kids get in for free. Members of the picnic committee have been issued tickets and a flyer will be issued shortly to members advising who they need to see to purchase tickets.

Membership Cards

We are gearing up to begin disbursement of the new S/YCEA Local #1-membership cards. We made the decision to begin this process in Sutter County, primarily due to the Measurer R campaign and our efforts to promote voter registration. We will keep our YCEA site representatives informed of our progress. We plan to hold a meet and greet for dispersing the cards at the primary work locations. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and support with this project.

Political Action

In Sutter County we won big on Measure R, 64% to 36%. This Measure would have started the process to convert the County to a charter county. The Sutter County Taxpayers Association was unofficially sponsoring this effort in order to influence decisions by the Board of Supervisors, including decisions related to wage and benefit improvements. We endorsed Jim Whiteaker who appears to have won by a small margin of votes. We also endorsed Larry Montna who got 45.4% of the vote in a five person race. We will have a fight in the November election because of the larger turn-out and the fact that the Sutter County Taxpayers Association will be putting their efforts behind Rick Libby their Vice President. If they succeed, it will again place our ability to improve wages and benefits at risk.

In Yuba County two of our candidates John Nicoletti and Mary Jane Greigo won easily. Our third candidate Don Schrader was not as fortunate. Don lost to challenger Roger Abe 69% to 31%. Don failed to take the challenge seriously and spend campaign funds he had. Additionally, anti-growth issues in the farmland and lower foothills worked against him.

Layoffs

Unfortunately due to the housing market and new construction have been in a slump some of our members in the building inspection department received layoff notices to be effective June 30, 2008. The Personnel Department has been working closely with affected employees to explore alternative employment within the County and to ensure that employees understand their options. Most employees will be taking other County positions. We are hopeful that in the near future the new construction building industry will rebound and provide the opportunity for reemployment into these positions.

Grievance Victory

One of our building inspector members contacted YCEA to inform us that they were classified as a building inspector I even though they qualified for advancement to the building inspector II level. After reviewing the facts and verifying the employee’s qualifications staff contacted the department head who initiated the appropriate payroll authorization to advance the member to the building inspector II level effective January 1, 2008.

A member in the Health and Human Services Department contacted us to advise that she had been required to use vacation for six hours on January 4, 2008 even though she had been ready and willing to report to work after dealing with the disabled vehicle that morning. This apparently had been an oversight because once staff contacted the department head, the matter was quickly resolved by the employee's vacation time was reinstated.

Yuba Trial Court

YCEA has initiated negotiations with Yuba County Trial Court for a successor agreement. Our current agreement expires June 30, 2008. Business Agent Marie Clark is serving as the chief negotiator for YCEA. Erika Kehoe and Maria Hicks are serving as the Negotiation Committee members with Marie. In addition to full contract negotiations, the YCEA team is also in the process of negotiating an agency shop provision.

Disciplinary Actions

YCEA's is currently monitoring two general investigations involving our members. Staff is also involved in a dismissal case. It appears at this time the employee will be resigning in lieu of their dismissal. YCEA is involved in negotiating the terms of this resolution.

CalPERS Health Insurance

CalPERS has decided that their reserves are sufficient to maintain the current premiums and benefit structure for calendar year 2009. For specific information regarding plan premiums and structure referred to the CalPERS web site www.calpers.ca.gov.

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