The State Worker

The California Faculty Association reached a tentative agreement on faculty contracts with the California State University Friday, after nearly two years of contentious negotiations. The agreement was announced by both sides Tuesday.

The tentative deal does not include raises. The issue can be re-opened next year if the budget improves. The deal provides some protections for lecturers that the union sought.

The agreement covers 23,000 employees on the 23 CSU campuses. The CFA has urged its members to ratify the agreement. The tentative agreement will be effective after ratification by CFA members and the CSU Board of Trustees.

Lillian Taiz, the association's president, said 50 percent of members who vote would have to vote in favor of the agreement for it to go into effect. She said the vote will happen Aug. 13-30 and members will be provided with many materials to help them understand the agreement.

"It's a matter at this point of whether the members chose to ratify it," Taiz said.

The results of the vote will be announced Sept. 3.

State employee furloughs in Oregon have not produced savings at prisons, according to The Oregonian.

An audit released Thursday by the Secretary of State Audits Division found that this was largely because a prison is a round-the-clock operation. The audit examined overtime and personnel costs at two prisons in Oregon.

Gary Blackmer, director of the audits division, said the furloughs did not cut costs because another employee had to be paid overtime to cover the vacated shift. The furloughs also caused difficulties for prison administrators who had to juggle employees.

Prisons differ from some other state operations because they require security staff 24 hours a day. So, with furloughs in place, prisons had to choose to either hire extra staff or pay overtime. The audit found that hiring extra staff to reduce overtime would not save much money.

The audit estimated that hiring a new correctional officer would cost about $61,000 a year, while paying experienced staff to cover that time would costs $59,000-$81,000.

The Oregon Department of Corrections told The Oregonian it agreed with most of the report.

The report looked at four years of payroll data.

Prisons Audit

The National Federation of Independent Business/California, a group that represents small businesses, has endorsed Proposition 32. The ballot measure would ban union and corporations from contributing money directly to candidates. It would also eliminate payroll deductions, unions' primary way of raising political money.

The federation joins others, including former state Sen. Gloria Romero in endorsing the measure.

"California's political system isn't working because the politicians we elect only work for the most well-funded special interests. While big corporations and labor unions always get what they want, small businesses and individual Californians find themselves on the losing end of new regulations, higher taxes and declining government services," said John Kabateck, Executive Director, NFIB/California, in a press release.

"Proposition 32 offers voters an opportunity to win back elected officials from the special interests that control them with their money and make politicians pay attention to California's needs again. As the Voice of Small Business in California, we're strongly urging Californians to vote Yes on Prop 32 because it cuts the powerful money tie between special interests and politicians and returns power back to the voters," he added.

The group said, in its press release, that Prop. 32 will address the problem of special interests by banning direct corporate and union contributions, banning contributions from government contractors and banning automatic deductions of wages to be used for politics.

The California Democratic Party formalized its position on Proposition 32, voting at a weekend executive board meeting to oppose the November initiative.

The measure bans unions and corporations from using payroll-deducted funds for political purposes. It also bans direct campaign contributions by either interest group.

Defeating the measure on the general election ballot is seen as the top priority for labor unions, which rely heavily on payroll-deducted member dues to build their campaign war chests, and their Democratic allies.

"We have a real fight on our hands in California this year but Democrats are prepared to dig deep and work hard to win," California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton said in a statement. "If Prop 32 were to pass, it would effectively silence the voice of working families at the ballot box while giving corporate interests and billionaire businessmen free rein to exert even more influence on our political system. We're not going to let that happen."

See where the California Democratic Party stands on the other ten measures slated for the November ballot over at our sister blog Capitol Alert.

A judge has cleared the way for a lawsuit to proceed against CalPERS over an unusual work arrangement that allows California Prison Receiver J. Clark Kelso to continue accruing state pension benefits even though his position was established by a federal court and he answers to a federal judge.

As we have previously reported, Daniel E. Francis v. CalPERS contends that Kelso's employment agreement illegally washes his pay through the state Administrative Office of the Courts so that the money can be factored into his CalPERS pension. Kelso has said the arrangement, while unusual, was vetted, is above board and legal.

Francis, the plaintiff, is a retired state worker and therefore a CalPERS member. CalPERS had argued he had no standing to sue. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny ruled that Francis had the right to pursue the lawsuit as a taxpayer.

That decision means that the litigation can now focus on whether Kelso is a state worker on loan from the AOC to the federal court or a federal employee with an illegal pension-spiking arrangement. The receivership corporation reimburses the AOC for Kelso's pay and benefits. Ultimately, the state pays the receivership's costs.

Here's Kenny's ruling from last week:

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.

Our recent story on student assistants losing their state jobs mentioned that the California Association of Professional Scientists has taken issue with the decision to ax students who work with its members.

The terminations will hit Sept. 1 in keeping with terms reached between Gov. Jerry Brown and SEIU Local 1000. The agreement also says that the state won't hire any more student assistants as long as Local 1000-represented employees are on furlough through June 30, 2013.

Here's a July 12 letter from CAPS President David Miller to the Brown administration that lays out the union's concerns:

David Miller letter to Julie Chapman

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

Today's column lays out more details of the Parks and Recreation secret leave buyout program and its connection to the discovery last week of $54 million the department had in two accounts -- even as it was planning to close 70 facilities around the state.

The Department of Finance didn't know about the money, which has been accumulating for at least 12 years, although the State Controller's Office did. Many department managers didn't know about the money either, and they worked to raise private money and build partnerships to keep facilities on the hit list open.

Imagine how the staff who beat the bushes for money and partnerships feel now.

Along with the State Controller's Office and the attorney general, Finance has launched an investigation of the Parks Department's budget, accounts and procedures. As you'll see in the outline below, its audit plan will initially unwind five years of records.

Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said Wednesday that the Parks matter in relation to the state's budgeting process is analogous to a tripped fuse discovered during a home remodeling project.

"You go back and check all the fuses," Palmer said, so the state also is taking a wider look at how departments report their budgets.

Audit Plan - Parks

Employees at California State University, Sacramento, are difficult to manage because of a "state worker environment" fostered by the school's bureaucratic neighbors, according to an report commissioned by officials and obtained by The Bee.

Interim Vice President for Human Resources Christine Lovely asked McKnight Associates Inc., a Westlake Village-based university HR consulting firm, to follow up on a 2006 study that examined the school's Office of Human Resources. The firm gave its findings to officials in April, noting that the university's grievance caseload at the time was two to three times that of any other CSU campuses surveyed.

The numbers:

Sacramento: 114
Long Beach: 52
San Jose: 46
San Francisco: 38
Northridge: 37
Fullerton: 32

Sacramento State's Office of Employment Equity last year fielded 77 formal complaints of discrimination, harassment, retaliation and other types of civil rights issues, McKnight reported, and spent $83,885 for outside firms to investigate employment issues.

"It is also noted that grievances from the CSUEU union account for about two-thirds of the total," the report says.

McKnight said that the same problems existed six years ago, and cites a key passage of the 2006 report as a big reason:

"There was a consensus among those interviewed that the campus culture presents a challenging workforce to manage. It was most frequently described as a 'state worker' environment greatly influenced by its close proximity to the bureaucratic attitudes of State offices. It was made clear by mid-level administrators that a high level of 'management fatigue' in dealing with this environment has historically been present."

We verified the report's authenticity with Sacramento State. Here it is:

The Legislative Analyst's Office has issued the explanations that voters will read in their November ballot pamphlets for all of California's propositions, including the breakdown of Proposition 32.

The measure would change campaign finance rules by banning corporations and unions from contributing to candidates. It also would ban spending for "political purposes" any money received from payroll deductions.

That would hit unions harder than business interests, since payroll-deducted dues are organized labor's main vehicle for raising political cash. Corporations fill their political war chests with money from company resources or individual executive donations.

Here's the LAO's breakdown of the measure:

Leaders and activists representing good government advocates and labor organizations today officially lauched their fight against a campaign finance reform measure on the November ballot, depicting it as unfair and fatally flawed.

The measure, Proposition 32, eliminates payroll-deducted monies from use for political purposes by unions and corporations. It also bans campaign contributions by either interest group, although both could continue spending unlimited sums on independent expenditure efforts.

We never get all of what we learn into a news story, but this blog can give users the data, the notes and the quotes from the notebook that informed what was published.

Our story in today's Bee takes a closer look at the state's plan to ax hundreds of its student assistants at the end of next month, in keeping with a furlough agreement Gov. Jerry Brown reached with SEIU Local 1000 lastt month.

In the course of reporting, we talked to about a dozen students and corresponded via email with about the same number.

Here's one of those emails from Sacramento State student Heidi Temple. We're posting her words here unedited and with her permission. She was speaking for herself, not her colleagues, supervisors or her employer:

Gov. Jerry Brown today named Julie Chapman director of the California Department of Human Resources, making the long-time labor relations expert the first chief of the newly formed department.

The announcement formally cements an appointment that has been anticipated for months after former Department of Personnel Administration Ron Yank sent out an email blast that she would succeed him. Yank, known for his independent style, didn't clear the email with the governor's office and created a minor stir with the announcement shortly before he left at the end of February.

Chapman took over as acting director of the Personnel Administration, which became CalHR on July 1 when it took over several functions that had been with the State Personnel Board. The department bargains labor contracts and handles all issues pertaining to employee compensation, job classifications, training, exams and recruiting and retaining state workers.

Chapman, 54, also served as the department's duty director of Labor Relations. Her state government career goes back to 1988, when she was an associate personnel services analyst for the Department of Housing and Community Services. She worked in labor relations at the Department of General Services and the Department of Mental Health before coming to DPA in 2000 as a labor relations officer.

Chapman's new post pays $145,008 per year and requires Senate confirmation. She is registered as a no-party-preference voter.

SEIU Local 1000 has contributed $500,000 more to fight Proposition 32, the campaign-funding initiative, according to records filed Thursday with the state.

Local 1000's latest donation nearly doubled the $503,000 it previously donated to the cause, pushing its total contribution so far to just over $1 million.

Unions so far have given nearly $9 million to defeat the measure, which would ban money obtained via payroll deductions from being used for political purposes. The ban would extend to both unions and corporations, but it would clearly hurt labor interests more, since they receive nearly all of their political operating money from payroll deductions of their members' dues.

Corporations, on the other hand, draw most of their political funds from executive donations and company resources. Those kinds of business sources have donated a little over $4 million to support the measure, which goes before voters on Nov. 6.

Prop. 32 also bans both groups from donating directly to political campaigns, although it leaves room for unlimited spending on independent expenditure efforts to support or oppose politicians or political causes.

SEIU Local 1000 Contribution to No on 32 Campaign

A former state executive who funneled money to a client of his wife's consulting firm has agreed to pay a $3,500 fine -- while he works as a retired annuitant for the state.

As first reported by The Bay Citizen, Theodore Park, former Acting Deputy Director of the Real Estate Services Division of the Department of General Services, agreed to pay the fine.

The State Worker has since learned that although Park retired in December with an annual $99,085 state pension, he has returned to the department as a retired annuitant.

"He is temporarily working for us as a staff services manager III," General Services spokeswoman Monica Hassan said this week.

Full-time staff services manager III positions pay from $6,779 to $7,474 per month, according to the state's jobs.ca.gov website. Retired annuitants can work up to 960 hours in a given fiscal year.

As reported by The Bee today, Parks and Recreation Director Ruth Coleman resigned this morning after revelations that the department has held on to tens of millions of dollars while threatening to close facilities and curb services.

The scandal broke after The Bee made inquiries into the Parks Department's finances, prompted by an investigation into a secret leave buyout program fostered by one of Coleman's lieutenants.

Here's Coleman's resignation letter to Gov. Jerry Brown:
120720 Coleman Resignation Letter

About 5 percent of the 93,000 workers represented by SEIU Local 1000 voted for a recent agreement with Gov. Jerry Brown that included a new round of furloughs for one year.

According to union sources familiar with the June 27 vote, 7,223 members cast ballots. Local 1000 officials didn't respond to several requests to confirm or deny the number. On July 3 the unions did announce that 65.76 percent of the votes supported the agreement. That means 4,750 Local 1000 members supported the deal.

The side-letter ratification process was unusual for several reasons.

From The Bee's Matt Weiser:

State Parks Director Ruth Coleman resigned this morning and her second in command has been fired after officials learned the department has been sitting on nearly $54 million in surplus money for as long as 12 years.

Click here for more on this developing story.

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

Today's column looks at the Parks Department leave scandal as a failure of management. In fact, if you talk to anyone who has looked at the issue of excessive state leave accrual, a common comment you'll hear is that it's primarily a management problem.

State policymakers have been talking about fixing it for years. Here's a proposal that the old Department of Personnel Administration made to SEIU Local 1000 back in 2005. The same proposal went out to all the unions that year, but it fell flat. The unions pointed out that the growing leave-balance problem was a management issue, not a rank-and-file problem. Managers pushed back. The idea fell flat.

Side note: The two sides did eventually agree that year on using a highest three-year average to calculate pensions for future hires.

Scroll down to Article 8 at the top of page 3:
DPA's 2005 bargaining proposals to SEIU Local 1000

From Bee Capitol Bureau colleague Jim Sanders:

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced plans Wednesday for a one-year pay freeze for Senate employees, but the move comes in the wake of a recent pay hike for hundreds of the chamber's aides.

Read the rest of Jim's report on our sister blog, Capitol Alert.

Following our report on her support of a controversial ballot measure, Los Angeles Democrat Gloria Romero asked The State Worker to expand on why she drew fire from teachers' unions when she served in the state Assembly and Senate.

The former Senate majority leader's request came after we reported that Romero supports Proposition 32, the campaign contributions reform initiative on the November ballot.

Our Monday post noted that the former state Senate Majority Leader has championed charter schools, which drew fire from teachers' unions. But Romero wanted to be sure that State Worker blog readers understand that organized labor's opposition to her runs deeper.

In a follow-up email to our Monday telephone conversation, Romero said this:

Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed Sacramento Municipal Utility District Director Bill Slaton to the California Public Employees' Retirement System's governing board, David Siders reports over at sister blog Capitol Alert.

Read more at this link.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has planned two public workshops to gather public input for how it can improve rehabilitation programs for inmates and parolees.

The department said in a news release this morning that it anticipates suggestions from organizations that run substance abuse programs, from academics and from employment services, among others.

The first meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Los Angeles in the auditorium of the Junipero Building at 320 W. 4th St.

The second is set for downtown Oakland next Tuesday, July 24, in the auditorium of the Elihu M. Harris State Building at 1515 Clay St.

Both workshops start at 9 a.m. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m.

Former Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero today said she is endorsing Proposition 32, the November ballot measure that would change California's campaign finance law and limit unions ability to raise political cash.

The announcement marks the first time that a high-profile Democrat has publicly supported the measure, which unions have blasted as a disguised effort by business interests to hobble organized labor's political influence.

"I've studied it carefully," said the Los Angeles Democrat during a telephone interview this afternoon. "This is as balanced a measure as we can achieve at this time."

Proposition 32 would ban both unions and corporations from contributing directly to candidates, although both could still fund independent expenditure campaigns to support candidates.

But the measure also eliminates unions' primary method of raising political spending money -- payroll deductions. Corporations, by contrast, raise the bulk of their political funds from executives and corporate resources.

The Bee's Matt Weiser reports that a former Parks and Recreation Department manager ran a secret leave cash-out program that funneled more than a quarter-million dollars to 56 employees, including more than $20,000 to himself.

The story is a reminder that rules and policies are only as effective as the people who enforce them.

Which brings us to our poll question:

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

On Thursday, we looked at one way Professional Engineers in California Government might sue the state for imposing furloughs on its members and violating state and federal contract laws. The union hasn't committed to suing and has said it still hopes to work out an agreement with Gov. Jerry Brown for wage reductions.

But how would the state, specifically the Brown administration, defend the imposed furloughs?

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

Our column in today's fiber/cyber Bee notes that for the first time since furloughs became a regular feature in state budgets three years ago, the government has imposed them on employees who are under contract.

Although Gov. Jerry Brown negotiated furloughs with 19 of the 21 bargaining units representing state workers, two haven't gone along: Professional Engineers in California Government (Unit 9) and International Union of Operating Engineers (Unit 13).

The governor has used authority bestowed on him by the Legislature to impose a one-day-per-month furlough on the holdouts. Now the questions are whether the either union will sue and what the basis of a lawsuit might be.

Join Jon Ortiz at noon for a live discussion of new state furloughs and personal leave programs.

Join us here at noon today for an online State Worker chat to discuss the latest news impacting the government workforce, from furloughs to pension reform. The hour-long session will include real-time participant polls, Q & A and our popular "You Take It" segments that open up the forum to lightning-round-style participant comments on issues of interest to state employees.

If you can't join the live event, the whole thing will be archived and available The State Worker blog for later reading.

See you in a few hours!

With all of the recent news impacting state workers in the last few weeks, now seems like a good time to convene another edition of our live State Worker chats to hash out the latest developments.

What's going on with furloughs and those furloughs-by-another-name, personal leave? How is the new round of hour and pay cuts affecting you and where you work? What are the politics behind the policy? Is this the last time the state will cut state workers' compensation? What do you think of Jerry Brown as the state's employer-in-chief? What about organized labor's role in furlough negotiations? What does this mean for contract talks next year?

We can talk about all of those issues and more in what is sure to be a fast-paced hour with plenty of contributions from users on Thursday at noon, right here on The State Worker blog. See you then.

It's official. Gov. Jerry Brown has accomplished what his predecessor couldn't: All state workers under the governor's authority are now furloughed.

Despite Brown's long-time criticism of furloughs as a bad business practice for the state, his Department of Human Resources (the former Department of Personnel Administration) last week issued a memo to government personnel officers detailing how to execute a 4.62-percent cut in the hours and pay for employees whose unions didn't negotiate a salary reduction with Brown.

The memo applies to about 11,000 state engineers in Bargaining Unit 9, most of whom work for Caltrans, and another 900 or so heavy machinery operators in Bargaining Unit 13.

Although the state's furlough memo applies retroactively to July 1, the Brown administration is still open to a negotiated reduction, said CalHR spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley.

"We've certainly left the door open," Jolley said.

Bruce Blanning, executive director of Professional Engineers in California Government, said that the union is continuing to talk with the Brown administration. In the meantime, it has told members to comply with the furlough policy, even though PECG may later fight it in court.

"We've told them to take days off if they're told to," Blanning said. "Obey now, grieve later. Anything else would be insubordination."

Still, Blanning said, "We'd prefer to work it out."

Gov. Jerry Brown has backed away from his earlier call for legislators to put a pension-change measure on the November ballot, although the administration is continuing to push for statutory changes.

In an email to The State Worker, Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford said, "There won't be pension changes on the November ballot. But we'll get the reforms done, you can count on that."

Ashton Kutcher's production company Katalyst Media, Inc. has sued California's Department of Motor Vehicles for breach of contract over a proposed reality show.

The show, "California DMV: Field Offices," would have chronicled life working at the DMV.

Katalyst and the production company Soda and Pop, Inc. are now suing the DMV for not allowing the show to go forward, after initially agreeing to it in writing, according to the production companies.

DMV spokesperson Mike Marando declined to comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit laid out this chronology: In early 2010, the DMV and Katalyst entered into negotiations for the show. In June of that same year, the DMV committed to the collaboration in writing. Pre-production work was started shortly after. In May 2011 a formal written agreement was reached in which the DMV agreed to provide access to the facilities and employees for the reality show, according to documents filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Katalyst then reached an agreement with TV network truTV to air the show. It would have been produced by Kutcher and TV executive Jason Goldberg.

Six weeks after signing the agreement, the DMV "changed course," documents filed by Katalyst argue. Katalyst cites a letter from Marando saying that the DMV "would not be moving forward on such a project" because it was not in its "best interests."

Katalyst argues that the company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in pre-production activities, such as casting, preparing budgets and negotiating contracts.

The company is asking the DMV to compensate it for money used on the project, at least $1,440,000, interest and legal costs.

This is not the first time the lives of state employees would have been documented for TV. National Geographic's show "Wild Justice," which followed game wardens, reached around 2 million viewers. The show first aired in 2010 and continues today.

Katalyst Media Inc. v. DMV

The number of California state workers retiring for the first six months of 2012 is down from this time last year, according to CalPERS data.

Through the middle of June this year 5,612 CalPERS members had retired, compared to 5,903 during the same period last year.

In the last three months, the retirement rate has remained fairly consistent with the same period last year. The number of California state workers drawing pension checks in June was down just .86 percent from last year. In April the number was down 2.79 percent. In May it was up 5.47 percent.

This marks a large change from March, when 61.48 percent more people drew pension checks than did so in March 2011.

In January, 28.21 percent fewer people retired compared to the previous year. This marked a significant change to the total number of retirees for the year because this January only 1,970 state workers retired, opposed to 2,744 in 2011 and 2,647 in 2010. Most state workers choose to retire at the end of the year, which counts in the January retirement figures.

In February, however, 45.7 percent more retired than the previous year.

Click the tabs at the bottom of the above spreadsheet to see more charts and data about CalPERS retirement figures.

Hannah Madans contributed to this report.

Blog backs review your thoughtful and provocative online comments, amplify points, answer questions, correct our mistakes and humbly accept your warranted criticism.

July 3 SEIU Local 1000 members vote to accept furloughs

Well for starters, I'm not sure if the state is saving $839 million or $401 million, since the article fails to explain the details of the $438 million difference.

Regardless, $401 million divided by 93,000 employees divided by 12 days is $359.32 per day; or hourly pay of $44.91. This equates to an annual salary of $93,423.

Now, we all know that the average state worker doesn't make $93,000, so I'm guessing Jerry is just blowing more smoke at us .... and this is without the unexplained $438 million.

Here comes the big money.

The union coalition fighting a Nov. 6 measure aimed at restricting unions from collecting campaign cash from their members has received a $1 million dollar donation, according to records filed with the state.

Meanwhile, the campaign backing the initiative, which would end using payroll-deducted monies for political purposes, has received a $500,000 contribution from the head of a Palo Alto holding company, state records show.

California Professional Firefighters Ballot Issues Committee made the million-dollar donation late last month to defeat the initiative, sending a seven-figure signal that labor interests have put the initiative squarely in their cross hairs.

Donations to fight the measure have reached about $8 million so far.

On the other side, Thomas M. Siebel, founder and chairman of First Virtual Group, gave $500,000 to the measure's "yes" campaign four months ahead of the election.

Monday's donation brings the funds raised to support the initiative to a little over $4 million.

California's state attorney's union launched its furlough agreement ratification today. While it's 3,700 or so members ponder their vote, several hundred who work at the State Compensation Insurance Fund face a new reality: They're no longer protected from furloughs.

Lawyers representing the state attorneys' union and SEIU Local 1000 employees won several court cases that turned back furloughs and restored lost pay for employees at the self-sustaining fund by relying on a state law that protects them from "staff cutbacks." Nearly 8,000 State Fund workers were wrongly furloughed, the courts said.

This time around, however, things are different.

Today's State Worker column looks ahead at what accepting furloughs while under contract means for state employee unions next year.

Our conclusion: Unless voters approve Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hike on the November ballot, state employees will likely face more furloughs in the 2013-14 budget year. If the unions were willing to do it while under contract this year, how can they resist pay reductions next year when nearly all bargaining units' agreements expire July 1, 2 or 3, 2013?

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.

Here are some interview quotes that didn't get into Tuesday's Sacramento Bee story on the SEIU Local 1000 ratification vote on the side-letter furlough deal with Gov. Jerry Brown:

Gov. Jerry Brown's office says that the administration and Democrats in the California Legislature have failed to reach a deal on pension changes, David Siders is reporting over at our sister blog, Capitol Alert.

Read the story at this link.

SEIU Local 1000 has announced that 65.76 percent of its members have approved a furlough agreement reached with Gov. Jerry Brown last month that assigns them them 12 unpaid days off over the fiscal year that started on Sunday.

The union announced the results on its website this morning, a day later than it had promised last week when it announced that members would have one day to vote at one of more than 80 polling places around the state. It did not release the raw tally of the votes in its announcement this morning.

"Because Local 1000 chose to negotiate with the governor rather than let our members be subject to imposed furloughs, we were able to achieve important solutions that went beyond a pay reduction in exchange for time off," Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker said in a statement posted this morning on the union's website.

The agreement requires the state to purge its payroll of all student assistants and "non mission-critical" retired annuitants by Sept. 1. The state won't hire either again while Local 1000-covered workers are on furlough.

The deal also sets up a task force that will regularly review outsourced service contracts.

The vote affirms a cost-cutting move that the Brown administration estimates will save the state some $839 million, about $401 million of that payroll relief to the general fund. SEIU's agreement is key to achieving the savings because the union covers 93,000 employees, roughly half the state's unionized workforce.

Many state workers were angry when Brown figured those savings into his May budget revision, since they are under two- or three-year contracts that already included a year of furloughs and remain in effect through June of next year.

Some SEIU workers were particularly upset, thinking that Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker had privately assured Brown that she could deliver the pay cut. Walker said that she had suggested going to a four-day, 10-hours-per-day workweek which Brown "tweaked" to a 4/38 schedule. That essentially amounted to a two-hours-per-week furlough that reached the 5 percent pay cut the governor sought.

Eventually, Local 1000 negotiators pressed for a more conventional floating furlough day that cut state employees' monthly pay by nearly 5 percent but allowed some flexibility with when they took the time off. Several other unions had previously agreed to similar furloughs, including, for the first time, groups representing CHP officers and state fire fighters.

By Cathy Locke

Efforts to correct a problem in a piece of equipment involved in electrical service to the state Capitol could result in a brief power outage for about 650 Sacramento Municipal Utility District customers early Tuesday morning.

Read the rest of the story here.

SEIU Local 1000 spokesman Jim O'Donnell said this morning that the local is tallying the vote on its side-letter furlough agreement with Gov. Jerry Brown and will announce the results "later today."

The local hasn't said whether it will abide by the vote. It wasn't obligated to poll members. But clearly a resounding "no" vote -- or even a closely divided decision -- risks fracturing solidarity.

Signs point to the measure passing. The pace of the SEIU vote (five days after the announced agreement) and the effort required to vote (polling stations open for one day as opposed to mail-in ballots) didn't allow much time for opposition to gel and probably suppressed turnout.

PHOTO: SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker / 2008 Sacramento Bee file