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All CCPOA Supervisory Members

From: CCPOA Supervisory Vice President,

Kevin Raymond

Subject: Update on Issues Concerning Supervisor Members

Dear Supervisory Member,

If you have not yet received your form to “opt in” and “consent to representation agreement” in the mail regarding the furloughs and FLSA you should shortly. Please take the time to read the cover letter authored by Chuck Alexander, Executive Vice President of CCPOA and the enclosed documents.

If you wish to be represented by CCPOA in this matter you must fill out the two required forms and return them in the postage paid envelope. It is important to note that this is for declaratory relief only. A furlough case hot line has been established at (916) 340-5033 for any questions you may have.

Meanwhile the minimum wage court cases continue with the next round set to go before Judge Marlette in Sacramento. The Controller states that he doesn’t have the ability to do what the Governor is asking of him, at least legally. This situation changes almost daily as the time frame the Controller has to work with approaches quickly. Please check ccpoa.org for updates.

The usual financial institutions (Golden 1, Bank of America etc.) have come forward and stated that they will extend zero or low interest loans to their members with direct deposit as they did in the early nineties when we were paid with IOU’s. There is a question and answer page on the DPA’s website that doesn’t cover much, but does provide a few answers.

As of this date we have received nothing new from the state regarding the implementation of twelve-hour shifts for supervisors.

I would like to briefly touch on the issue of communication. I do strongly believe that an informed membership is a dangerous membership. When I agreed to accept this position I committed to my personal number one goal – communication. Just how well I have done in this area so far can be a subject of debate.

Just so you know I provide the above as background, I’m not trying to break my arm patting myself on the back.

The real point here is communication can be a doubled edged sword. While communication is valuable to the member, and in my mind necessary, it also can lead to unforeseen problems on various fronts. As an example the state noticed us on the above-mentioned twelve-hour shifts for supervisors at SVSP and the YTS conversion. Valuable information the membership should know about. We filed an information request for the policy, post orders etc. Subsequently the state rescinded the notice for twelve-hour shifts. Again valuable information the membership should know about.

I issued a simple 2-paragraph update (April 12, 2010) stating the notice had been rescinded. The state responded to our previously filed information request with a copy of my update. Basically stating we have rescinded the notice and apparently you know that – look at this memo from Kevin Raymond.

That is the down side to communication – information that is intended for the membership will be passed on to management, DPA, or the media. Now this is not always with malicious intent. But the damage can be done regardless. This is why you will never receive an update discussing bargaining tactics etc.

Does you vote count? If you don’t believe it does lets take a look at the hotly contested democratic primary race in Senate District 40 as an example. Much was made, by some, over CCPOA endorsing Juan Vargas over current Assemblywoman Mary Salas. There are five prisons in SD 40, Ironwood, Calipatria, Chuckawalla, Centinela and RJ Donovan. Initially it appeared that Salas had won and declared victory.

But not so fast, with additional ballots that hadn’t been counted at the time the tide turned. The latest count stands, as reported, giving Vargas a lead of 22 votes. Your vote does count; this is the classic example of our members making a difference.

As more information becomes available on these and other issues I will continue to update you.

Kevin Raymond