2012-06-20 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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that was needed. 156 inquiries and/or complaints were received during the period, out of which 145 were closed within 14 days. Three were closed within 15 -30 days, and 8 were closed within less than 30 days from the date received. Thus all complaints were addressed, received, and closed at 100%. 93% were completed within 14 days; the others again required more research and extensive investigation but were closed within 30 days. The one division where they did not meet their goals is in labor relations in hearing and responding to employer level grievances within 60 days of receipt. The position had been vacant for 7 months. Mr. Takahashi redistributed the grievance hearings to Ms. Toriano, himself, and another staff person in trying to train her in grievances. They were able to work with the unions to get their understanding about response times. The unions were agreeable to giving them extensions on response times, so they have been responding to grievances as agreed upon with the unions. They were not able to meet that 60-day turnaround time, but again, they were short staffed in that area. Now that they have a person on board, he fully expects they will be able to meet those goals. Goal number two for labor relations was to complete negotiations for new collective bargaining agreements effective 7/1/11 to 6/30/13, represent the Mayor at negotiations, provide Mayor with timely and appropriate recommendations, and provide all necessary technical support to the Mayor. They were able to negotiate new master agreements and supplemental agreements for HGEA and UPW bargaining units. Mr. Takahashi represented the Mayor at these negotiations and set their goals in negotiating supplemental agreements with these unions, which were different from the master agreement negotiated, but in line with County employees’ needs and the County’s operational needs. Mr. Takahashi believes the Managing Director submitted feedback to Chair Yoshiyama on how Mr. Takahashi represented the Mayor at these proceedings. They are still in ongoing negotiations with SHOPO and Fire and are in line for arbitration. There are several bargaining units that have not been resolved, the nurses for one, and institutional workers represented by UPW, so those are all pending arbitrations. Mr. Takahashi is representing the County in these negotiations for the Police and Fire. Goal three was to support and participate in the administration’s budgetary process, addressing concerns related to labor costs, organizational 4