Modesto City Employees Association Blog

MCEA marks one year with new representation

by MCEA attorney Joe Rose

It's been a little more than one full year since MCEA members voted to change representation and engage the services of my law firm. When MCEA narrowed the search for new representation in 2006, you told me wanted to be more self-sufficient, to take a stronger stand in protecting employee rights, to audit the City budget, improve the overall organizational health of MCEA, and remain in control of your own destiny with your own leadership. I'm pleased to say all of those goals have been and are being accomplished. I think we should take quick look backward to see all we have collectively accomplished in the last year.

When you hired the Rose Law Firm in December 2006, we discovered MCEA's corporate status was considered "suspended" by the Secretary of State and it had been suspended for more than a decade. It took almost a full year to correct the problems causing MCEA's suspended status, some of which were quite old, but we cleared those up and MCEA is now an active corporation again.

You hired my firm and we inherited 26 active disciplinary cases against MCEA members. That number represents almost 6% of MCEA's membership under threat of discipline! I am pleased to say all of the disciplinary cases that were pending when we took over as your legal counsel are resolved. One of those cases was a termination. After three days of hearing during which I represented the employee, the arbitrator found the firing to be unjustified and ordered the employee reinstated with more than $55,000 in back wages and benefits.

Another of those disciplinary cases was a 7-day suspension without pay reduced to a 1-day suspension after one day of hearing, resulting in a restoration of 6 days wages to the employee. That employee was represented by attorney Tamiya Davis of the Rose Law Firm.

Almost all of the other cases resolved with results that were satisfactory to the employee involved by reductions in the penalty and more favorable outcomes.

One additional challenge was the fact that within days of your change of representation, MCEA's president was hit with a 10-day suspension for "excess involvement" in union activity - a case which is now pending an unfair practice charge hearing before the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).

In addition to the unfair practice charge involving retaliation against MCEA's president, MCEA filed two additional unfair practice charges at the PERB to protect employee rights. One involved an MCEA member who was twice denied his Weingarten right to a union representative and was discriminated against for requesting a union representative. A hearing on the first case was held in Sacramento over two days on January 8th and 9th. (A decision is pending.) The second involved an MCEA member whose discipline was made more severe after he exercised his appeal rights.

In the first few weeks my firm was on the job we conducted a comprehensive labor law training seminar for officers and directors of MCEA at the Doubletree near Tenth Street Place. Another, larger training seminar will be held early this year not only for officers and directors, but also for MCEA shop stewards and members as well.

Another associate from my office, Diane Sabonis, assisted dozens of MCEA members through the appeals process of regarding the "wall-to-wall" classification study. Many MCEA members were pleased with the panel's determination on their appeal.

Not including those who we assisted with the "wall-to-wall" classification study, in the last year alone my team at the Rose Law Firm has handled disciplinary investigations, disciplinary appeals, grievances, disability accommodations, discrimination complaints, unfair labor practices, workplace safety complaints, and myriad other matters for at least 64 individual MCEA members.

To accomplish the financial review of the City's budget you wanted, we arranged to have the City's financial reports and documents analyzed going back to 2002 by Bachecki, Crom & Company, LLP, a San Francisco accounting firm that specializes in governmental budget review. The accountant's report will be published to every MCEA member in the near future.

I have appeared at City Council meetings, most recently to speak out against privatization of the custodial services at Tenth Street Place, which would mean lost custodial positions in MCEA's bargaining unit.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly to all, we are in the midst of negotiating your labor contract with the City; fighting for a living wage that will keep pace with the cost of food, clothes, shelter, medical care, fuel, etc. Mediation is now set for February 21 and 22.

It has been a busy and highly productive year for MCEA and the Rose Law Firm. On any given day there may be one, two, or three members of my law firm (myself included) at a City of Modesto facility attending meetings, representing MCEA members, or negotiating with management on your behalf.

Now, it's time to look forward again. MCEA is a fantastic organization and is getting stronger every day. Stay the course. You're on the right track.

MCEA negotiators head to mediation armed with accountant's findings

Negotiators for MCEA and the City of Modesto have called in state mediator Steve Pearl in an attempt to help the two sides reach agreement on a labor contract. The first round of mediation is scheduled over two full-day sessions on Thursday, February 21, and Friday, February 22, 2008.

Talks broke down when the City declared impasse on October 10, 2007. The City's impasse declaration was preceded by its presentation of a "last, best, and final " offer in August 2007. City officials offered an 11-month contract term through July 24, 2008, a 3-percent non-retroactive salary increase, and an $80 per month increase in contributions for health benefits. In a secret ballot ratification vote in which an incredible 81 percent of MCEA's members participated, the City's offer was rejected by more than 85 percent of the voters.

MCEA seeks a two-year contract with a modest 3 percent cost of living adjustment in the first year, retroactively effective to July 24, 2007, and a 3.5 percent cost of living adjustment in the second year. MCEA also seeks a one-time $300 per employee signing bonus upon ratification, and an $80 per month increase in health premium contributions.

By comparison, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, announced two weeks ago the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) increased by 4.3 percent during the one year period from December 2006, to December 2007.  Similarly, the November 2007 CPI-W for the preceding year was 4.6 percent. The CPI-W is a measure of the average change in  prices over time on food, clothing, shelter, fuel, transportation fares, charges for doctors' and dentists' services, drugs, and other goods and services purchased by working families for day-to-day living.

City officials have portrayed the City's financial condition as weak throughout bargaining with MCEA, opening in mid-2007 with a cost of living increase offer of 2.5 percent and then only slightly increasing that offer to 3 percent months later in its "last, best, and final" offer after MCEA's contract had already expired.

Yet, as you will recall, the City Council gave a 5.5 percent across-the-board salary increase to roughly 49 senior executives in early 2007. During 2007 negotiations, the City also offered 4.0 percent to its mid-managers, but mid-managers declined to accept it and opted for a 3.0 percent raise instead as a sign of solidarity with MCEA. And in the final days of 2006, the Personnel Department recommended to the City Council a 4-year MOU with 22.5% in salary increases for City fire fighters, plus a variety of educational and vocational certification incentives adding an additional 1 percent to 5.5 percent on top of that.

MCEA salaries are paid from some 20 "enteprise" and "internal service" and other funds in addition to the City's "general" fund. The annual cost of a one percent salary increase to the City for MCEA's 440 members is approximately $330,000. However, because most MCEA member payroll costs are paid from these other funds rather than the City's general fund, the impact of a one percent salary increase for MCEA on the general fund is less than a third of that amount at about $100,000 per year.

On Thursday, January 24, 2008, MCEA's negotiations team, MCEA's attorney, and MCEA's certified public accountant met in downtown San Francisco to review the accountant's analysis of the City's finances from years 2002 through 2007. Since September, MCEA's accountant has been analyzing the City's budgets and financial reports.

Despite complaints by City officials of a declining balance in the general fund, MCEA's accountant found the City's enterprise and internal service funds - the funds from which the bulk of MCEA member salaries and benefits are paid - to be healthy, strong, and growing. For example, the City's largest enterprise fund - the water fund - increased from $61.5 million on July 1, 2001, to $102.7 million at June 30, 2007. The water fund increased $20.4 million in one year from 2006 to 2007, and $17.6 million the year before that.

Another major enterprise fund from which MCEA salaries are paid is the sewer fund. Since July 1, 2002, net assets in the sewer fund increased from $105.9 million to $130 million at June 30, 2007.

Between 2002 and 2006 the City had at least seven other "non-major" enterprise funds: the parking fund, the storm drain fund, the compost fund, the airport fund, the bus fund, the golf fund, and the community center fund. However, in 2007, the bus fund also became a major fund.

The internal service funds are similarly healthy. For example, the fleet management fund grew from $7.6 million in 2003 to a high of $14.2 million at June 30, 2007, even though a $2 million advance was made from this fund to the general fund in 2003.

Providing an overall summary, MCEA's accountant said, "The [City's] enterprise funds that finance the majority of [MCEA] member's wages are strong, and most of the City's internal service funds may have excess moneys."

These are just some highlights. A complete copy of the accountant's 70-plus page comprehensive report will be made available to every MCEA member and posted on the MCEA website in the near future.

MCEA launches new weblog

You spoke. We listened.

Members of the Modesto City Employees Association want a place to communicate with each other about issues important to them and their organization. This weblog has been launched to provide members with the most recent information plus a venue for the expression of ideas related to your employee organization.

The MCEA website will remain in existence and continue to be periodically updated. But this blog will be a place for MCEA to communicate more effectively and frequently with members about new developments and important news, while allowing you to register your comments and engage in open discussion on those topics with the organization's leadership and your fellow members. We hope this new interactive experience will strengthen MCEA and improve responsiveness to members needs.

Our goals in creating this weblog are primarily to be responsive to your suggestions and to make MCEA and even better organization to serve you. Thank you for sharing your ideas here and for helping to improve MCEA's excellence.

You spoke. We listened.

Members of the Modesto City Employees Association want a place to communicate with each other about issues important to them and their organization. This weblog has been launched to provide members with the most recent information plus a venue for the expression of ideas related to your employee organization.

The MCEA website will remain in existence and continue to be periodically updated. But this blog will be a place for MCEA to communicate more effectively and frequently with members about new developments and important news, while allowing you to register your comments and engage in open discussion on those topics with the organization's leadership and your fellow members. We hope this new interactive experience will strengthen MCEA and improve responsiveness to members needs.

Our goals in creating this weblog are primarily to be responsive to your suggestions and to make MCEA and even better organization to serve you. Thank you for sharing your ideas here and for helping to improve MCEA's excellence.