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Posted: 10/3/2014
From left, Frank Ruffino, Ling-Ling Chang and Todd D’Braunstein at a fundraiser luncheon for Chang, (AD 55 Candidate) at Hock Farm Craft & Provisions Restaurant in Sacramento.
This week Frank Ruffino (VP of Governmental Affairs) and Todd D’Braunstein (VP of Membership Development) met with candidates and political leaders to discuss the issues facing ACSS members and to support these candidates in their campaigns. It is candidates like these that understand ACSS’ issues and will fight to protect your career, your compensation, and your benefits.
Support the PAC by contributing now!
Also, don’t forget to volunteer today to help ACSS-endorsed candidates get elected to these critical seats.
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Posted: 10/2/2014
Now you can be part of the solution by volunteering to help ACSS-Endorsed Candidates win these critical election seats. With less than 35 days until the November election, every vote is so important. It is crucial that our candidates win these Senate and Assembly seats to have elected officials in office that support ACSS’ issues. Even an hour of your time per week can make a world of difference on Election Day. ACSS’ Political Action Committee and our Endorsed Candidates urge you to stand up and make a difference by volunteering!
Please contact one or several of the following candidates to volunteer. Let’s move to victory – help ACSS by volunteering NOW!
Elect Betty Yee for Controller, Alex Padilla for Secretary of State, Jose Solorio for Senate, Bonnie Garcia for Senate, Marc Steinorth for Assembly, Tim Sbranti for Assembly, Connie Leyva for Senate, and re-elect Sharon Quick-Silva to the Assembly.
Thank you so much for your support and help! Frank P. Ruffino Vice President of Governmental Affairs, ACSS Contact Frank Ruffino at acss@acss.org.
Posted: 10/1/2014
Sacramento Bee | Tuesday, September 30, 2014 The Association of State Supervisors sponsored the measure and lobbied lawmakers for two years, said Rocco Paternoster, the group’s executive director. When the Legislature sent the bill to Brown without a single dissenting vote, the supervisors hoped the governor would be convinced to sign it...
Posted: 9/30/2014
In a letter to members of the California State Senate, Governor Brown returned SB 216 without his signature. Brown agrees that salary compaction is a serious issue that hurts managerial-level employees and must be dealt with, but he chose not to sign this bill because he believes that SB 216 is not the best method to resolve the problem of compaction at this time. In his veto letter, he states that he understands that the intent of this bill is to ensure that the salaries for managerial employees are higher than the employees they supervise. His administration has made progress on this issue within the past 12 months and will continue to meet with ACSS to discuss compaction issues.
ACSS has worked hard for over 15 years on the issue to resolve compaction. We have discussed compaction with several California governors and their administrations. These dialogs have bore little fruit as various administrations have consistently placed other interest and other state employees before supervisors and managers. While the Brown Administration has addressed one or two instances of compaction these efforts are too few and far between.
ACSS is pleased to see the Governor’s statement that his administration will continue to discuss compaction issues with us. However ACSS and state excluded employees do not want or deserve another 15 years of circular discussion and inaction.
Our next meeting with CalHR is on October 6th, 2014. ACSS continues to commit to resolving the issue of salary compaction faced by its members and, as always, will continue to inform you on progress with these efforts.
Click here to view the veto letter from the Governor.
The Solorio for Senate campaign hosted Super Saturday; their big fall campaign kick off. This spirited event brought out people from the community to support Jose’s election to the State Senate. Legislators from across the state came to support Jose including Senator Kevin De Leon, and Senator Ricardo Lara.
Local ACSS chapter 513 members including chapter president Arlene Ryan, chapter officer Elena Yuasa, and statewide vice president for governmental affairs Frank Ruffino were there helping the campaign.
If you are interested in helping out with this very important Senate race please visit the Solorio for Senate office at 1325 W. Warner Ave., or you can find our phone banking and precinct walking schedule on www.SolorioForSenate.com.
ACSS is pleased to report that SB 216 (Compaction - Public employment: salary ranges) was taken up by the Senate and passed with clear bi-partisan support on a 35-0 vote today, the 29th of August, 2014. The Senate approved the amendments to the bill made by the Appropriations Committee a few weeks ago. Last week the Assembly also unanimously voted in favor of the bill. SB 216 now heads to the desk of the Governor, where we eagerly await to hear the fate of this much-anticipated bill to end the issue of salary compaction.
For years, ACSS has been a staunch supporter of Governor Brown and his programs. We now urge the Governor to stand behind the managers, supervisors, and members of ACSS that are so valuable to the State of California, and sign SB 216. Governor Brown has until September 30, 2014 to take action on the bill. ACSS is committed to finally resolving the issue of salary compaction faced by its members. As always, we will update you as these efforts continue.
Photo Credit: Lou Delgado From left to right: Frank Ruffino, ACSS VP of Governmental Affairs; Connie Boardman, Huntington Beach City Councilwoman; Senate Candidate Jose Solorio; and Sen. and Mrs. Jim Beall, author of ACSS-sponsored bill SB 216
ACSS meets with senate hopeful Jose Solorio and State Sen. Jim Beall about compaction and ACSS role in state government. Jose is an individual with the experience needed to create positive solutions for California.
On July 15th 2014, ACSS met with CalHR as a follow-up discussion in regards to the pending pay letter for excluded employees, including ACSS members, associated with bargaining units 9 and 10. No other units were discussed in this particular meeting. On August 20th 2014, CalHR released an additional official pay letter for S09, M09, S10 and M10 detailing the salary adjustments for excluded employee classifications associated with these units.
To summarize, some supervisors in a split classification are now provided parity in salary with the rank and file. In our July meeting, CalHR did not compare these salaries with those of the employees they supervise. They only identified salary adjustments for parity with either the benchmark class or rank and file class for split class, for now.
It was also confirmed that any salary adjustments above 5% would be incrementally PERSable over the course of 3 years, and not immediately. Only the initial 5% would be PERSable immediately. The best outcome would have been an immediately PERSable full amount of the salary adjustment. ACSS does, however, have confirmation that the PERSable salary will indeed occur, according to the latest legislative decision. ( See SB-102, Section 4 for an elaboration on “incrementally PERSable”. )
Even though Pay Letter 14-17 is being released later than expected, CalHR assured ACSS that if a state worker’s class is awarded an additional pay raise, it will, in fact, be retroactive and back-paid to the July 1, 2014 effective date. ACSS continues to work diligently with CalHR to discuss salary adjustments for other excluded employees facing similar salary compaction.
ACSS Executive Director Rocco R. Paternoster provides an update on SB216 (Compaction - Public employment: salary ranges). After 2 years of discussion with the legislature and several recent meetings with Governor Brown's Administration, ACSS-sponsored bill SB216 has moved out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and to the Assembly Floor for a vote. With overwhelming bipartisan support, the Assembly passed SB216 today on a 66-0 vote.
Saying it would be a "waste of public resources" to put it on the ballot, the Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kent Kellegrew on August 4, 2014 ordered the removal of a ballot measure that would have replaced the County's defined benefits pension plan with a 401(k) and set a cap on retirement benefits.
This is a victory for the Citizens for Retirement Security ("CRS"), a coalition of nine unions within Ventura County that filed suit against the County. CRS argued that the county can't unilaterally repeal its participation in the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937. Only the legislature has the power to authorize a pension phase-out plan.
The measure was also eliminated because it violated the single subject requirement imposed by the California Constitution. The subject initiative sought to 1) eliminate defined benefit retirement programs and 2) impose a five year salary cap. Ventura County employees can take in a sigh of relief knowing that their pensions are still in place, for now.
However, the Judge provided the parties time to appeal prior to the election by staying his decision until August 14th. An appellate ruling would likely issue before the final deadline for printing the November ballots later this month. We will keep you updated as the appellate process unfolds.
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