Round Table Reports

CONTRA COSTA

Negotiations will be starting on May 15th, 2015. The PPOACCC is continuing to lose both new and veteran staff in the field as well as in the institutions, due to low wages and high retirement contributions. Probation is optimistic about negotiating a contract that will help our association get back on track to having a competitive wage, which will attract new members. Chief Phil Kader continues to express the Department’s recruitment and retention issue to the Board of Supervisors and the County Administrator, and is hopeful that the PPOACCC will be provided with a fair contract.

INYO

After 4 years of negotiations, ICPPOA was unable to dodge increased costs to medical and conceded to an 80-20 split (we’d been paying only 1% previously). This burden was somewhat offset with a minimal COLA of 6% over the next 36 months of the contract. Our unit was universally left out of county wide re-classifications and salary adjustments last year, with our administration receiving hefty increases. A budget shortfall proceeded and our department saw our only File Clerk transferred then dismissed while a DPO II was forced to transfer to CPS. One of two DPO III’s took the “golden handshake” and retired and another DPO II transferred to a nearby county. Additionally there was great turn over in the juvenile institution and the majority of left over staff throughout the department are suffering from poor morale. Two new PO’s have come on in the last few weeks as well as 3 full time Group Counselors but times remain tenuous between Admin and line staff.

The DPO’s are now armed for the purposes of field supervision and we have our own Weaponless Defense Instructor in the department. The departments Electronic Monitoring Program is popular and keeps growing. PO’s are praying for new field vehicles rather than Admin vehicles in the near future as we cringe at the thought of a county proposed consolidated building which will take out already less than confidential cubicles away and force us into half cubicles. Good times. take our already less than”…not out ;)

MODOC

Modoc County currently has one opening for a Deputy Probation Officer and has two Adult Probation Officers (Chief and Assistant Chief) and one Juvenile Probation Officer.

MONO

In Mono County we continue to work without a contract. The CAO is leaving, so perhaps we adhere and fishing season has started.

MONTEREY

A new board has been elected:

President: Gina Nava

Vice president: Charles Sanders

Secretary: Aileen Bravo

Treasurer: Elizabeth Crooks

Sergeant at arms: Paul Chacon

We are working on making changes in our bi-laws.

We are working on attending/offering more training in EBP (evidence based practices)

ORANGE

Orange County continues to gear up towards upcoming negotiations. We have filed an unfair labor practice with the Public Employee Relations Board regarding the counties implementation of Civic Openness In Negotiations or COIN. COIN would cost out all negotiated items and make them public record. The county failed to meet and confer before putting this practice into effect. The population at JH had been in a steady decline the past year but it has stopped declining and has increased a little over the last few months. Caseloads in the field are down for now, we've had several retirements this year so this could be a temporary low.

SAN BERNARDINO

San Bernardino County has just completed negotiations and the contract has been agreed to by members and the Board of Supervisors. The negotiations that were agreed upon were not the best but a step in the right direction. They are as follows: 2% Equity Increase for everyone in good standings, $1750 sign on bonus to be reflected in the June 10th pay-period, $400 Hazard Pay to be issued in July, $100 boot allowance effective June 2016 and the following year the allowance will increase to $150, $1000 bonus in October, 2.5% increase to be effective in December, the ability to cash out up to 40 hours of vacation time and lastly the ability to re-negotiate the contract in July of 2016 if the Counties financial status improves. Current concerns in our department, speeding in county vehicles when Dispatch / Officers are requesting immediate back-up, the promotion process considering people who have been with the department for many years and has worked in many different assignments are not being promoted, body cameras and being used as security guards.

SAN DIEGO

We are going through a transition in our department. Several key positions in management have been vacant for quite some time. The county stepped in and moved a Sheriff's Captain in to assist. He has been great, someone with common sense and honesty. Hopefully he can stay longer than 18 months.

After several years of requesting new and improved policy and procedures the department has come up with these policies by way of Lexipol. We are reviewing as we speak. Lexipol isn't perfect, but at least consistent in format.

Still trying to get our numbers down in our supervision units, with some help of moving some positions around from other areas in the department.

BC Strong, Barry Calabrese has united the entire department in his fight against terminal cancer. We've had several fund raising events. All these events have had great turnout and support.

On the political side we have endorsed three candidates for County Board of Supervisor, Greg Cox, Dave Roberts and Joel Anderson. All three have made LE their top priority

SAN LUIS OBISPO

1. Update on Proposition 47 cases, our felony cases have continued to drop which have increased our misdemeanor cases that we still supervise. It is unknown that since these cases are being reduced will this have a negative impact in that fewer individuals will be motivated to complete treatment for substance abuse?

2. The pilot project for the Department's Shot Gun's has not been implemented yet but we are hoping to get it going by summer time.

3. Training has been completed for the Mobile Device Terminals and the policy is under review.

4. A committee has been formed to establish protocol in dealing with Human Trafficking Issues.

5. We are currently fully staffed with our Deputy Probation Officers and our Juvenile Services Officers. This next budget year will include monies for an additional 6 Deputy Probation Officers and we will be hiring due to promotions and retirements.

6. The Juvenile Hall expansion project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2016.

SANTA CRUZ

Our chief recently had a discussion with a Judge to provide feedback regarding a decision by the Court to delay the remand of a defendan=vehicles. These are both instances where our Chief advocated for our safety/concerns and our association is pleased to see he is taking steps to address our concerns.

All officers were recently provided Weapons Familiarization training.

We will be receiving our annual officer safety training at the end of this month.

Our SB 81 grant received final approval from the BSCC.

Our EBP-Trauma Informed Care Training grant was approved.

SOLANO

Greetings from Solano County

We are excited to say we are moving forward with arming. Our Department is looking to arm our PRCS unit as well as our search team; Approximately 22 employees to start. We are just beginning our second round of PC 832 trainings, next week, and will begin Force and Weaponry training the end of May. We hope to be up and running by the end of summer.

We continue to see a decline in cases, due to Prop 47, however our Courts are referring those cases reduced to Misdemeanors to us for recommendations on whether they should continue with Supervision. Our Department supervises by risk level, not but offense classification, and given such we recommend continued supervision even for misdemeanor cases if the risk score warrants.

We begin negotiations the end of May, as our Contract expires the end of September. We are hopeful things will look up for us financially.

We have been working this past year to come up with an acceptable 12 hour shift pattern schedule to use for a pilot project at our Juvenile Detention Facility. So far, we have been unable to clear a schedule through our County Auditor’s office.

For now that is all….. Stay safe my friends

Tarita

VENTURA

Our uniform work group continues to work towards an agency uniform policy for sworn staff. We are waiting on various mock-up and uniform samples.

Since the announcement of our Work Furlough facility’s pending closure in September of this year, facility Corrections Services Officers and Deputy Probation Officer staff have expressed concerns regarding transfers. Not much information has been provided other than the facility is to be replaced by a Day Reporting Center and with an electronic monitoring unit.

We continue struggling with staffing levels at both the adult Work Furlough and Juvenile Facilities. Mandated overtime continues to occur on a regular basis. Although there have been a few recent promotions, backfilling of these positions has been sporadic. The only good news continues to be the Alternative Work Schedule which has been a one-year trial program. It has created 10 and 12-hour shifts along with the 8-hour shift for some staff. We are hoping the schedules will be officially adopted later this summer.

Lastly, our agency’s armed officers continue to voice concern over changes in policy regarding how they may interact with our law enforcement partners. There still appears to be several interpretations of policy regarding the armed caseloads which has caused a lot of misunderstanding. Currently, all staff in one of our armed units have transfer requests to an unarmed assignment. The Association continues to try to work with management to improve arming policies and to ensure our member’s safety.

YOLO

Yolo County recently promoted Dan Fruchtenicht to the position of Deputy Chief. We wish Dan well in his new position.

The Department just did recruitment for Supervising Probation Officer to fill two vacancies. Interviews have been conducted, and we are awaiting the announcement of the appointments to those two positions. The recruitment was open to both internal and external applicants.

Several of our officers recently participated in a firearms competition in Yuba County with staff from other agencies around the state. The feedback from the competition participants was that it was a good experience for all involved.

Our Juvenile Detention Facility Superintendent position remains vacant at this time. Recruitment is likely to be scheduled in the near future. Interested and qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.

YUBA

New Policy and Procedure manual has been put out to the department.

The department just hired a new Deputy Probation Officer, promoted a Supervisor to Program Manager and will have a promotional opportunity for a Supervisor. There will be Deputy Probation Officer positions open in the next few months. The Juvenile Hall has hired 2 new Juvenile Corrections Officers and there are still openings.

Final funding was accrued last month for the new Tri-Counties juvenile hall. Colusa, Sutter and Yuba Counties have joined in partnership. The Juvenile hall will be run by Yuba County Probation.

The new Pre-Trial unit is up and running and moving at a pretty fast pace. We have 2 officers in this unit currently.