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Small Business Symposium

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:50:20 +0000

Location:
Sacramento State Ballroom
6000 J Street
Sacramento, Ca 95817

Join us for an action-packed day to learn how to build and grow your business! Whether you are a business owner, entrepreneur, manager or contributor, this symposium will educate you on best practices and the tools, training and resources that you need to stay competitive in today's market.

Registration includes: Continental Breakfast, Workshops, Legislative Luncheon, and Networking Mixer.

6/4/2013

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Assembly bill tweaks state's five-day AWOL determination law

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:56:22 +0000

The Assembly has passed a bill that gives state employees more due-process protections if they are prematurely terminated for being off work without permission.

SEIU Local 1000 sponsored the measure by Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, D-San Bernardino, which would allow an adjudicating law judge to consider whether a department properly fired an employee who for being AWOL.

Currently the law assumes AWOL firings are righteous. An adjudicating law judge can reinstate employees who satisfactorily explain their absence, why they failed to obtain leave and also can prove readiness, willingness and ability to return to work.

But a judge can't consider whether departments fire employees before they cross the AWOL threshold for dismissal: five consecutive days away from work. Brown's bill requires a department to reinstate employees who are fired prematurely. If they don't, employees could then make that argument for reinstatement and a judge would have the leeway to consider it.

AB 855 also says that employees can demonstrate fitness to resume duty with documented verification from a doctor or other licensed health care provider.

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The Roundup: UC workers strike; WI smokers' surcharge

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:29:54 +0000

Wis. Legislature approves smoker surcharge, other measures for public employees
The Legislature's budget committee Tuesday approved a measure meant to discourage public employees from collecting a pension and a paycheck at the same time.- Fond du Lac Reporter

Thousands strike at University of California hospitals
As non-emergency surgeries were postponed and fill-in medical technicians were brought in from out of state, thousands of employees walked off the job Tuesday at the UC Davis Medical Center and four other University of California hospitals.- Sacramento Bee

State lawmakers' pay cleared for hike
SACRAMENTO -- Earlier this year, the commission that decides whether state politicians get raises put off a decision, waiting to hear from the state finance department whether the fiscal picture is bright enough to allow for increases.- U-T San Diego

Want more? For stories of interest to state employees, check out the State Worker's new and constantly updated News & Views feed by clicking here.

Follow @TheStateWorker on Twitter and check out our community page on Facebook for links, comments and insights into our reports, blog posts and columns.

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Audit: California must look inward to assess failed payroll system

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:49:51 +0000

A new report from the Legislative Analyst's Office says the state needs to assess its role in the MyCalPays debacle.

That conclusion is part of the LAO's take on the $14.6 million Gov. Jerry Brown's budget gives the State Controller's Office to clean up the failed payroll overhaul.

The budget doesn't include funding for an audit of why the project failed. The analyst suggests that an outside firm should assess the state's role in the project's demise.

Controller John Chiang's spokesman, Jacob Roper, said that the money for an internal forensic analysis wasn't included in Brown's budget.

The timing for such an audit "is still being developed right now," Roper said.

PHOTO CREDIT: State Controller John Chiang. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee 2011 file

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State denim drive collects 1,900 items for women's causes

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:39:31 +0000

The final tally is in: Government employees at 20 state and local departments and four Sacramento-area businesses collected 1,916 pieces of clothing during last month's Denim Drive.

Many of the donated items go directly to victims of violent crime and abuse, while others will be sold in thrift stores that fund assistance services, including WEAVE, Yolo Co Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center., and La Casa de las Madres in San Francisco.

The annual drive is inspired by Denim Day, an observance that started 12 years ago to protest an Italian court's decision overturning a rape conviction because the victim was wearing jeans.

Here's the roster of this year's Denim Drive government- and private-sector sponsors:

State and local government:

Governor's Office
State & Consumer Services Agency (SCSA)
Office of the Treasurer
Department of General Services
Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development
CalPERS
Sacramento County District Attorney's Office
California Emergency Management Agency
Department of Consumer Affairs
Department of Housing and Community Development
California Highway Patrol
California Technology Agency
California Department of Human Resources
Department of Health Care Services
Department of Developmental Services
Emergency Medical Services Authority
State Compensation Insurance Fund
California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Medical Board of California

Sacramento businesses:

La Bou - 1122 11th street
Café Connection - 1007 L Street
Ambrosia Café - 1100 11th St.
Vallejo's Restaurant - 1100 O Street

PHOTO CREDIT: Candy Larsen (left) of the California Victim Compensation program delivers denim collections to Diana Stantz, Director of the Yolo County Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center. Photo courtesy California Victim Compensation Program

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From the notebook: Table tallies California managers' dual jobs

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:54:53 +0000

As we reported late last Friday and Saturday, the Brown Administration and the State Personnel Board released their audits of California state managers and supervisors who had a second (and in some cases, a third and a fourth) appointment to hourly-wage jobs in their same departments.

About 85 percent, CalHR said, held secondary positions in violation of state hiring policies and civil service laws that aim to make state jobs subject to a fair and open process.

The remaining 76 of the appointments were appropriate, CalHR investigators said.

What follows is the unedited spreadsheet from CalHR that summarizes its auditors' findings:

We can never get everything we learn into a news story. "From the Notebook" posts give you some of the extra details behind the news.

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Audit: Departments wrongly doled out hourly jobs to managers

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:23:29 +0000

Some of California's most prominent departments improperly gave salaried managers additional jobs that pay an hourly wage, violating civil service rules, according to a audit released late this afternoon.

The state's prison and hospital systems, CalPERS and the Department of Social Services together accounted for nearly all the 504 salaried managers and supervisors who held a second hourly-pay position in 2012. Human resources auditors in the Gov. Jerry Brown's administration said 428 employees, or 85 percent, shouldn't have received secondary job titles because the hourly work fell within the scope of their salaried job duties.

Brown's human resources department and the State Personnel Board investigated 11 agencies whose managers also held hourly part-time jobs last year. The audits launched after The Bee first reported on the policy in January. Brown subsequently banned additional appointments for state managers and supervisors.

The state human resources department dedicated 10 staffers to research and write their reports over the course of three months. Still, their findings lack some basic information, such as how much the departments spent overall on managerial additional appointments last year. CalHR spokeswoman Pat McConahay couldn't come up with that figure when asked this afternoon.

Investigators concluded the mistakes were clerical errors. Departments will either collect the overpayments from employees or make good on the underpayments, McConahay said.

The personnel board, which is tasked with ensuring the civil service system is based on merit. It's auditors found that departments violated several rules aimed at making job appointments fair and open, including advertising the part-time positions, taking applications and competitively interviewing candidates.

Departments offered various reasons to auditors for using managers to do lower-level work for hourly wages, such as meeting crushing workloads, covering vacancies or leveraging managers' knowledge and skills for less money than hiring new employees or consultants.

The Brown administration today told the departments to refer questions about their additional appointments to the Department of Human Resources and personnel board spokeswoman Pat McConahay.

"This is our investigation," McConahay said when asked why the administration forbade departments to speak for themselves. "Their responses are detailed in the reports, and the reports speak for themselves."

Click here to open the CalHR page with links to its reports and the State Personnel Board's audits.

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The Roundup: Unions lose holiday court fight; questions arise over donation to California state parks

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:37:59 +0000

California state worker unions lose ruling on loss of holidays
A Sacramento appellate court ruled Thursday that state workers covered by expired job contracts were not exempt from the state's elimination of two paid holidays.- The Sacramento Bee

Commentary: 'Nevada must be made whole'
As the 77th session of the Nevada Legislature nears its close, I invite my fellow Nevadans to learn about their state employees before the final votes are cast to determine the economic fate of state employees, their families, and their neighborhood businesses.- Elko Daily Free Press

State officials say parks fundraiser wrongly used cash
A private fundraising company hired to raise money for California state parks is accused of spending almost $1 million of a large donation on its own bills, an accusation it denies as legislators say they want more information.- News 10

Want more? For stories of interest to state employees, check out the State Worker's new and constantly updated News & Views feed by clicking here.

Follow @TheStateWorker on Twitter and check out our community page on Facebook for links, comments and insights into our reports, blog posts and columns.

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Survey: Governments rely less on hiring freezes and pay cuts

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:54:13 +0000

A new survey finds that "the picture is brightening" for the state and local government civil service workforce as fewer employers resort to hiring freezes and layoffs -- although they're continuing to whittle away at employee benefits costs.

About one-third of state and local governments told the non-profit Center for State & Local Government Excellence that they're freezing pay this year. That's down from 51 percent in 2012.

Just 18 percent of government employers said they're laying off workers, compared to 28 percent that axed jobs last year.

Governments have continued making changes to health and retirement benefits, with 56 percent modifying health benefits in 2013 and 44 percent altering retirement programs. The change most often cited in both areas: shifting cost from the employer to the employee through higher contributions.

Meanwhile, 22 percent of employers surveyed said their retirement-eligible employees accelerated their retirement plans this year, the same as 2012.

Here are the survey results in detail. Click here to view the 2012 report for comparison.

State and Local Government Workforce: 2013 Trends

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Column Extra: California's decades-long civil service civil war

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:44:33 +0000

Today's State Worker column looks ahead to Friday's much-anticipated reports on additional appointments and how they will test Gov. Jerry Brown's 2-year-old reorganization of the State Personnel Board and the Department of Human Resources.

The piece also references the long, combative history between CalHR (formerly the Department of Personnel Administration) and the personnel board as they jostled for power over various aspects of the state's hiring and workplace policies. At one point, SPB sued the then-DPA over contracts it negotiated that allowed some state employees to take disciplinary appeals to a different panel than the personnel board.

Here's the 2005 California Supreme Court ruling in State Personnel Board, et al. v. the Department of Personnel Administration. The court sided with SPB.

State Personnal Board, et al. v. Department of Personnel Administration

With just 400 to 450 words for our weekly State Worker column, most of what we learn each week never sees print. Column Extras give you some of the notes, the quotes, the documents and the observations that inform what's published.

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May 18th Outdoor Market Place at Magnolia Antiques

Thu, 16 May 2013 03:16:26 +0000

May 18th Outdoor Marketplace at Magnolia Antiques and Home Interiors

Magnolia Antiques and Home Interiors is holding its outdoor Marketplace event on Saturday, May 18, 2013 from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There will be 70 outdoor vendors selling antiques, collectibles, garden items, furniture and other items. There will also be bargain tables, a food vendor and music.

The store will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. that day and hold a 20%* Off Storewide Sale. Bring your friends and family and spend the day!

Magnolia Antiques and Home Interiors, 6468 Fair Oaks Blvd., Carmichael, CA 95608. Phone: 916-973-8590. Open daily 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. www.MagnoliaAntiquesAndHomeInteriors.com

*Sale does not include items marked Sale, Firm, or NFD and cannot be combined with other sales or discounts.

5/18/2013

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Scientists' union sponsors Capitol science day for kids

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:41:49 +0000

The California Association of Professional Scientists is sponsoring its 25th annual State Scientists Day at the Capitol today.

The event always draws several thousand Northern California school kids from third grade to sixth grade. This year they'll see exhibits that include demonstrations of how scientists treat sick and injured wildlife following disasters like oil spills; the science of earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis and a hands-on insect display.

State Scientists Day kicked off at 10 a.m. on the Capitol's west side and runs until 1 p.m.

PHOTO CREDIT: Edward Newman, an environmental scientist at the California Emegency Management Agency, teaches kids the different warning signs that are on hazardous materials like explosives, corrosives and poisons at State Scientists Day 2012. Picture courtesy California Association of Professional Scientists.

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The Roundup: Bay Bridge questions; NC could curtail civil service protections

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:17:11 +0000

Senate panel questions Caltrans about Bay Bridge broken bolts, broken trust
Frustrated state senators pressed California Department of Transportation officials at a Tuesday hearing about how they will deal with thousands of suspect steel parts in the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge which were installed even though they had not met specifications.- Sacramento Bee

Civil protections curtailed for state workers under McCrory bill
RALEIGH -- The legislature is poised to curtail civil service protections for state employees, giving preliminary approval Tuesday to a bill pushed by Gov. Pat McCrory.- Raleigh News & Observer

New state budget: Where's the heart and humanity?
Try looking for some trace of heart and humanity in the $7.2 billion state budget for fiscal 2014 approved by the House and awaiting Senate action. Still searching? So too are many others. The budget is big on bricks and mortar and meager for people, those state employees who keep the government running. - Tulsa World

Want more? For stories of interest to state employees, check out the State Worker's new and constantly updated News & Views feed by clicking here.

Follow @TheStateWorker on Twitter and check out our community page on Facebook for links, comments and insights into our reports, blog posts and columns.

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Failed state payroll clean up price tag: $14.5 million

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:07:45 +0000

The program may be dead, but the spending isn't over for the state's defunct payroll system overhaul.

Gov. Jerry Brown's budget includes a $14.5 million allocation for legal costs and computer data clean up associated with the MyCalPays system that Controller John Chiang killed earlier this year.

Brown's January budget proposal called for $38 million and 150 positions to finish implementing the program, but Chiang canceled the contract with tech giant SAP after a series of error-filled test runs raised concerns that the project could never expand statewide.

Chiang spokesman Jacob Roper didn't have a detailed breakdown of how the controller will spend the reduced allocation.

The governor's budget revision says part of the money will pay for 40 temporary positions to move employee payroll accounts that were part of the failed test runs back to the old computer system, fix errors and make employees whole.

Some of the money will pay for legal costs. Chiang has said he will sue SAP, which has said it fulfilled the contract's terms.

In total, the controller's office has spent $262 million over nine years on the project. Lawmakers first approved funding for a state payroll overhaul in 1998.

PHOTO CREDIT: State paychecks roll off a printer at the State Controller's Office on C Street in Sacramento. Randall Benton / Sacramento Bee 2003 file

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Jerry Brown 'aiming low' on pay for state employees

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:33:47 +0000

During a press conference this morning to tout his latest state budget plan, Gov. Jerry Brown said that he wants to hold down state payroll costs as his administration bargains new pacts with nearly a dozen unions.

One questioner noted noted that the administration is in contract negotiations and asked Brown why the new proposal didn't include employee costs.

"That's one of the things about bargaining. You put a number in and (the unions) know where you're going," Brown said. "Suffice it to say, we're aiming low."

Brown's representatives have signaled for months that the governor wants to hold the line on salaries. This morning he reinforced his position that education funding is his top budget priority.

An earlier version of Brown's 2013-14 budget proposal anticipates spending $15.7 billion on employee salaries for roughly 216,000 employees under his authority. A little less than half of that would come from the general fund.

The figure includes $502 million in negotiated top-step raises and health insurance contribution hikes that offset higher pension contributions already in place. The state will also lose the $840 million saved this year through one-day-per-month employee furloughs. State workers will all return to full schedules and pay on July 1.

PHOTO CREDIT: Gov. Jerry Brown takes a question during this morning's state budget press conference. Jeremy B. White / Sacramento Bee

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No. 2 at California toxic substances control department resigns

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:47:12 +0000

Odette Madriago, the chief deputy director of the Department of Toxic Subtances Control has resigned from her post to take a lower-level job at the agency before she retires at end of the year.

Madriago's decision to leave came after the non-profit Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission that she had a financial stake in some companies that the department regulates. The group has also published a report that accused Madriago of blunting state regulatory efforts.

Toxic substances spokeswoman Tamma Adamek declined to comment, but released an email sent to employees last Friday by department Director Debbie Raphael that says that Madriago will work on a special project until she retires at the end of this year.

Last year Madriago earned $112,090, according to state payroll records. She will move down to her last position, supervising engineer II. Adamek did not know how much that job will pay.

Here's the email:

From: "Raphael, Debbie@DTSC"
Date: May 10, 2013 4:40:51 PM PDT
Subject: Transitions

Dear Colleagues,
It is with great sadness that I write this email to all of you. For the past two years, I have worked closely with Odette Madriago, depending on her to carry the very heavy weight of many critical issues. She is a dedicated and highly professional member of the Department and I have relied on her expertise and knowledge to advance the mission of DTSC.

Odette has just informed me that she is planning to retire from the Department at the end of the year. After much thought, and in acknowledgment of the critical role that a Chief Deputy Director plays in the work I have ahead of me during my tenure with the Department, Odette has agreed to relinquish her role as Chief Deputy Director. Instead she will focus her remaining time in the department on completing the Safer Consumer Product Regulations to ensure that we meet our deadline to submit the regulatory package to OAL. This change will allow us to use her expertise to complete this critical phase of the program, and meet her goal of retiring at the end of the year.

I will be out of the office next week and I have asked Reed Sato, Chief Counsel, to serve as the Acting Director in my absence. Upon my return I will begin the search for a new Chief Deputy. Whoever serves with me in that capacity will have big shoes to fill.

I am grateful for all I have learned from Odette these past two years and I know we all will wish her the best as she transitions into retirement.

Debbie

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University of California wants court to stop hospital strike

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:54:22 +0000

The University of California said today that it will ask a judge to keep hospital workers from striking later this month.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 says its members will walk off the job at the university system's five hospitals May 21 and May 22.

UC officials and the union have been in negotiations since last summer for a new contract covering some 13,000 patient care workers. The contract expired Oct. 1, and the contentious talks deadlocked earlier this year.

AFSCME says it's fighting to fix unsafe hospital conditions and foolish spending by high-level university officials who enrich themselves while seeking cuts to employee compensation.

The university counters that the union's real aim is to avoid new state laws that significantly reduce retirement benefits for new pension-system members.

This isn't the first time that AFSCME Local 3299 has threatened a walkout. In 2008, the union called a strike at all five UC medical centers. A San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a restraining order. The union ignored it and walked off the job for five days in July that year.

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Watch the Assembly hearing on CalPERS' long-term care

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:38:00 +0000

We've received quite a few calls and emails from CalPERS long-term care policyholders asking for more details about this week's Assembly committee hearing on the system's program and the long-term care insurance industry in general.

We thought former Assemblyman Dave Elder's comments had the most news value. The rest of the hearing retraced details that we have reported plenty in the last six months or so.

In response to policyholders' intense interest in this topic and their questions about Tuesday's hearing, we've embedded the proceeding's archived video feed above, courtesy of the California Channel. Set aside some time if you plan to watch the whole thing. It's nearly four hours long.

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Buenos Dias Mixer at Skybox

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:13:23 +0000

MVP Sports Grill 2110 L Street Midtown Sacramento, CA 95815

Not all networking happens after 5 p.m.! Join us for our Buenos Dias Mixer at Skybox in Midtown and jump start your day making connections to promote and grow your business. Over coffee and chat, you'll be ahead of your competition by networking before even hitting the office! Be sure to have your 90-second elevator speech ready, you never know if you'll be the member chosen to share it with the entire audience. Buenos Dias, the perfect start to your day! Contact us to purchase a table vendor opportunity for $75 at info@sachcc.org.

5/15/2013

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ACE Workshop- Human Resources

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:13:23 +0000

Locaiton:
Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
1491 River Park Dr. Ste 101, Sacramento, California 95815

We want you to ACE your business goals this year! Join us for the Human Resources workshop to hear from experts on what you need to be most of aware of when you are building to have staff or already have employees.

5/17/2013

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