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Some items from The Rio Linda Elverta News, August 25, 2005:
Water District Employees organize
Additional Community Council Town Hall meetings scheduled
Editorial: Community Council
Published in Rio Linda Elverta News August 25, 2005 - Scroll for other articles

Water District Employees organizeRio Linda Elverta News August 25, 2005

Formal Grievance filed

by Jay O'Brien

The employees of the Rio Linda/Elverta Community Water District (RLECWD) have formed an Employees' Association. The employee's attorney, Felix G. Poggemann, attended the RLECWD Board meetings held August 15th, and asked the Board to voluntarily recognize the new organization.

Poggemann provided the Board with copies of related sections of the RLECWD's Policy Manual and asked the Board to follow its own Policy Manual in dealing with the employee organization. He said, "The Board had a duty to meet and confer with the employees prior to making the moves that it has made so far".

The RLECWD Board of Directors took no action to recognize the Employees Association.

Poggemann, following up with a letter on August 18, has formally initiated grievance procedures against RLECWD on behalf of the Employees' Association. The grievance, sent to the General Manager, states "...the acts complained of in this grievance primarily include acts by the Board of Directors." Several issues are alleged:

* Unilateral and apparently permanent cancellation of CalPERS health benefits without meeting and conferring with employees as required by the Policy Manual.

* Cancellation of CalPERS health benefits without replacing pay raise benefits given up by the employees during previous negotiations so they could keep CalPERS.

* Failure to recognize the employee organization as mandated by the Policy Manual.

* Failure to follow the time line required by the Policy Manual when making changes to the employee compensation plan.

* The District's disclosure of private and confidential financial and personal information to Director Mary Harris, who has previously made public such private and confidential information.

The grievance letter states that time is of the essence as the employees feel their CalPERS benefits will be lost if the problems are not addressed immediately. Poggemann's letter says he will initiate legal proceedings to pursue a Writ of Mandamus and possibly monetary damages should he not receive a response from a RLECWD representative by August 24.

A "Writ of Mandamus", if granted by the Court, would direct RLECWD to follow its own written policies.

One employee withdrew from the association, making a statement to that effect at the Regular Board meeting on August 12; when contacted later, the employee declined the opportunity to make a statement, other than, "I have no comment". The other six employees have retained their membership in the organization.
Published in Rio Linda Elverta News August 25, 2005 - Scroll for other articles

Additional Community Council Town Hall meetings scheduled
Rio Linda Elverta News August 25, 2005
The Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) announced today it will host three town hall-style meetings to introduce the newest applicants vying for seats on community councils planned for ArdenArcade,Carmichael/ “Old” Foothill Farms and Rio Linda/ Elverta.

The September 1 and 6 meetings follow the Aug. 19 “soft closure” filing deadline for people interested in serving on the community councils. As of this date 17 people – six in Arden Arcade, four in Carmichael/“Old” Foothill Farms, three in Fair Oaks, and four in Rio Linda/Elverta – have submitted their application, bring the total number to 67 applicants for 30 available seats.

Town hall meetings scheduled for Carmichael/“Old” Foothill Farms and Rio Linda/Elverta will be held 6:30 to 8 p.m., Sept. 1, at the John Smith Community Room of La Sierra Community Center, 5325 Engle Rd., Carmichael, and Rio Linda Community Center, 810 Oak Lane, Rio Linda, respectively. The Arden Arcade meeting will be held 7 to 8:30 p.m., Sept. 6, at the Department of Human Assistance Community Room, 2700 Fulton Ave., Sacramento.

Supervisor Roger Dickinson and Supervisor Susan Peters requested the town hall meetings in order to complete their selection of council members to be presented for formal appointment by the full Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan said a town hall meeting was not necessary for her presentation of council members for Fair Oaks.

Slates of proposed members for all community councils will be considered at a Sept. 7 Board of Supervisors hearing. Public comment in support or opposition to proposed applicants will be received at the hearing.

DNS Director Victor Morrison-Vega said the town hall meetings and Board hearing keeps the community council program on-track for an Oct. 1 start.

Following appointment, all council members will undergo extensive training in land-use, open meetings laws and other items on Sept. 18.

The town hall meetings will follow a format similar to meetings held in late July and early August to present people that filed their applicants prior to a June 17 filing period. The new round of meetings will be for applicants not able to attend the prior session and those that have recently applied. After a question and answer session, an informal “Meet and Greet” social hour will be held for attendees to meet all attending council applicants. Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

The event format calls for introductions and opening comments by the Board of Supervisor whose district includes the community council. Audience questions will then be presented to council applicants by a moderator.

The community council effort is among three major programs of the Department of Neighborhood Services, one of 11 departments that comprise the Municipal Services Agency. It is designed to bring local control over many quality-of-life issues facing residents and business owners in the four communities. As a two-year pilot project, the initial community council structure will follow that of the County’s Planning Commission.

The councils replace existing Community Planning Advisory Councils (CPAC) in each community; CPACs established for other communities are not affected by the community council program, Morrison-Vega said.

As with the Planning Commission, the community councils will have decision-making authority over land-use issues such as cell phone towers, kennels, private schools and others. Additional responsibilities include local control of issues currently managed by the County Zoning Administrator and the Subdivision Review Committee. With experience, the council’s authority could include local transportation issues such as parking lots, stop signs and speed bumps.

These areas of authority were delegated to the councils by the Board of Supervisors. As with the Planning Commission, decisions of the community councils can be appealed to the Board following payment of an appeal fee, Morrison-Vega said.

During the program’s pilot phase, the Department will evaluate each council’s process and progress, and compare the results of councils with members appointed at-large and those appointed by district.

Arden Arcade and Rio Linda/Elverta community councils will be appointed at-large and will feature nine and five council members, respectively. Carmichael/“Old” Foothill Farms and Fair Oaks councils will feature nine and seven council members appointed by district, respectively.

Other major initiatives of the Department include formation and support of neighborhood associations and development of Community Service Centers geared to decentralize many popular municipal services from downtown and locate them closer to the communities they serve. The first Community Service Center opened in January at 6015 Watt Ave., Suite 4, North Highlands, and features staff from County Engineering, Transportation, Code Compliance and Building Inspection.

For more information contact Craig Moyle at 916-875-4571 or moylec@saccounty.net.

SEE NEXT ITEM FOR ADDITIONAL COMMENT
Published in Rio Linda Elverta News August 25, 2005 - Scroll for other articles
ThisNThat
Well, here we go again.

The county has reopened the nomination period for the Community Council candidates. Rio Linda had five nominees, four of which had served on the Community Planning Advisory Council and were very experienced in planning issues. In fact, County representatives have commented that Rio Linda/Elverta had probably the best CPAC in the County.

Now the County is claiming that not enough candidates signed up for some of the other councils so they extended the deadline from what they termed as "the soft deadline". Seems to me that it is like the state lottery saying that not enough people bought tickets in Southern California, so they are going to extend the deadline and the people in Northern California who bought tickets can't claim any of the prizes they may have won.

Now I agree that the concept of the Community Councils has a lot of merit, but not if it's going to be mickey moused around with. If some of the areas didn't have enough people volunteer to serve on the Council for their area, then the County should have extended the deadline only for the areas that came up short. The five people who signed up for the Rio Linda/Elverta Council abided by all the rules as set forth by the County and were timely in turning in their applications.

Also, now there will be a time period for those who may object to certain nominees, but I don't recall that provision in the original plans. It was only up to the Supervisor who serves the district to say yea or nay for each nominee. Perhaps our Supervisor wasn't satisfied with our nominees and had the rules changed???

In extending the "soft deadline", the County claims that they sent postal notices to all the addresses they have for Rio Linda/Elverta, but after talking to several people, they claim they didn't receive one. Was this selective mailing??

Now according to the news release about the "soft deadline" being extended, the original five nominees from Rio Linda/Elverta aren't even invited to attend the next Town Hall Meeting. They should be, and will the new nominees be asked the very same questions as the original five nominees were asked. And will their views on incorporation of Rio Linda/Elverta be allowed as were the original five were allowed to answer?

I was also led to believe that the Councils would have some authority on items such as stop signs, traffic, speed bump, etc., not just parking lots.

And just what is a "soft deadline"? When I was in the Air Force and the orders were to fall out at 0600, I couldn't tell them "oh, I thought that was the just the "soft deadline" if I was late and fell out when I got around to it.

Hopefully I will be able to find more time and have the space to write this column more often. But once again, I just ran out of time and words, but certainly I've given you some food for fodder, so you might want to chew over some of it. So with that, it's 30 for me and 73 to you, and drive carefully. Don't make it your last trip, or mine either. And remember to buckle up, it's not worth the fine not to, and according to all the statistics, seat belts do save lives.
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