Civil Service Rules Change Progress
Every few years, County Human Resources and the Civil Service Commissioners (CSC) request to meet and confer with all the County’s recognized employee associations (unions) to review the CSC rules for changes. This last occurred in 2021, with the various parties making different proposals for rule changes.
On November 3, 2021, SLOCEA proposed a change to CSC Rule 4.05 that in lieu of a hearing before the Commission, the grievant/ appellant would have the option to have their grievance or appeal heard by a qualified neutral hearing officer obtained through the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). The hearing officer would be mutually selected by the County and SLOCEA, and all associated costs would be split equally between the two parties.
For many years this has been an important matter for SLOCEA. We have previously proposed the establishment of a mutually selected hearing officer three times, all of which the County rejected: During a meet and confer over CSC rules changes on March 16, 2018 and during two separate contract negotiations for successor MOU agreements on May 10, 2019 and April 25, 2022.
Once again, the County rejected SLOCEA’s (November 2021) proposal and impasse was declared. SLOCEA and the County submitted the dispute to a factfinding panel pursuant to California Government Code 3505.4 and on March 7, 2023 SLOCEA and the County went through a one-day factfinding hearing on the dispute.
Tony Butka, a well-respected and experienced hearing officer, along with a panelist from each party presided over the hearing. After all witnesses testified and the evidence was submitted, attorneys for the parties submitted briefs with their respective positions.
On June 12, 2023, Mr. Butka issued his findings of fact and recommended terms of settlement, which is advisory. Thereafter the County had 10 days to make Mr. Butka’s Factfinding Report and Recommendations publicly available. At press time this report is still confidential.
In May, SLOCEA staff and SLOCEA President Emily Landis met independently with three County supervisors and issued letters to the remaining two supervisors. We respectfully requested that, should the factfinding report come back in favor of SLOCEA’s position, the Supervisors vote in favor of adopting the change.
We pointed out that the current scheduling of hearings does not provide employees with the opportunity to adjudicate matters in a timely manner. Utilizing one hearing officer, compared to five Commissioners and the Commission’s legal counsel (Attorney Steve Simas) would expedite the current scheduling of hearings. A single hearing officer would provide a more expeditious hearing process for employees.
Many other jurisdictions throughout the state utilize a single hearing officer system in order to streamline and expedite due process hearings of public employees.
In addition, the CSC rule change would provide a professional hearing officer who is highly trained and experienced in labor relations with ample experience in the application of hearing procedures and rules of evidence, knowledge in labor statutes and court precedent.
We will let you know the outcome of the report issuance in the next edition of The County Blade.
By Theresa Schultz, Sr. Labor Representative