Board Meeting 5/19/15

Vice President Michele Hanisee, Treasurer James Evans, and Directors Eric Siddall, Craig Gold and Bobby Grace were present. Our Executive Director John Rees, Executive Assistant Juliana Konze, and General Counsel Richard Shinee were also present.  Executive Vice President John Harrold and Secretary Anthony Colannino both had excused absences. NEGOTIATIONS Our Contract Negotiation Team (CNT) continues to prepare for negotiations and had the great pleasure of conferring at length with one of our recently hired consultants, a County Human Resources subject expert, Cathy O’Brien. All I can say is that she is impressive, knowledgeable and the insights she shared were invaluable. In actuality, our Board— through the efforts of the CNT—has been engaged in earnest in informal/back channel dialog for Successor Salary MOU for several months at all levels of the County. Next week we anticipate that the CNT will meet with the County’s and the DA’s authorized representatives. WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT DDA Michael Fern has cleaned up our website and contacted other firms to bid on the next phase of our effort to modernize the site.  The Board decided to engage the services of 100eight (RadarBlue‘s WordPress collaborator), and we are hopeful that by the end of June we will see the fruit of their labor. Our web site is laadda.com. Please visit it frequently. If you are seeking contact information of any Officer or Director of the ADDA, please click on the “Contact Us” button on the top line. LEGAL PLAN The Board continued to advance the efforts to adopt a Legal Plan. Hopefully we will have something to present to your members in the near future. BYLAWS Both our General Counsel and Executive Director have recommended that we revisit our current Bylaws, in part because of the need to eliminate provisions apparently required by AFSCME Council 36, and mandated by the AFSCME Constitution. The Bylaw Revision Committee is comprised of Vice President Michele Hanisee, Executive Vice President John Harrold, Secretary Anthony Colannino, and myself. We will submit a draft to the Board for its review and consideration. POLITICAL ENDORSEMENT PROTOCOLS Director Bobby Grace will supply our Communications Consultants Englander, Knabe, Allen (EKA) with suggested proposals for our revised criteria for Endorsements. They will be making recommendations in order to help us create and manage appropriate protocols. Our Executive Director John Rees also has experience in this area and will participate in the process. This is such an important function of our effort to elevate our prestige and clout that the Board felt it deserved reflection and consideration by those with experience in such matters. When the new protocol is adopted, we will publish it to our members. PARKING LOTTERY Complaints were received about the “Lottery” regarding parking at the Hall of Justice. The Board is continuing to look into the matter. Frankly, I’m not sure there is anything we can do about it. Any suggestions, not just complaints, please contact me at president@laadda.com. MONDAY MEMO The addition of the DDA of the Month section at the outset of the ADDA Monday Memo is still being well received.  Please consider writing and submitting for publication concerning any topic or subject matter of interest to DDAs. We will submit your proposal to EKA. If accepted it will be disseminated to an audience that is much larger than this office. We invite you to participate in our effort to educate and stimulate all the players in our County with your ideas. If you know of someone who doesn’t receive Monday Memo, it is available on our website at laadda.com and we are happy to add their email address to our subscriber database. Just send me an email: president@laadda.com. PROMOTIONAL LISTS Finally, Assistant DA Pam Booth has informed me that they have requested that the Grade III and IV Promotional Lists remain open for the duration of this year. PROBLEMS Any complaints, any suggestions, any questions for the Administration, any rumors you want to confirm or deny? Any aspirations or projects that the ADDA can assist you in accomplishing to further the interests of your colleagues? If so, please let me know by sending me an email: president@laadda.com. Our DA Jackie Lacey and her Assistant DA Pam Booth have assured me that they are interested in working with your Association to resolve problems. They prefer to address rumors, clarify circumstances that may have been misunderstood, and resolve problems. I believe they have been relatively good at providing me quick answers or correcting misunderstandings. The next meeting of the Board will occur on Tuesday, June 16th, 2015, commencing at 6:00 p.m. Marc Debbaudt ADDA President