LAKEPORT, Calif. – Next month the Board of Supervisors will hold hearings on several grievances filed by the Lake County Deputy Sheriff's Association and the Lake County Correctional Officer's Association.
The grievance hearings are scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, during a regular Board of Supervisors meeting, which will begin at 9 a.m.
The meeting will take place in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
Board Clerk Mireya Turner said the hearings are expected to take the rest of the day, with no other items scheduled afterward.
The hearings, which will be public, will cover the correctional officers' level four grievance and a level five grievance from the deputy sheriffs' association, both appealing unilateral changes to sick leave policy instituted earlier this year by Sheriff Frank Rivero.
The correctional officers also have filed a level four grievances regarding shift swap policy changes and the elimination of eight-hour shifts.
County Counsel Anita Grant told the board at its Aug. 9 meeting – at which time the board discussed scheduling the hearings – that the grievance process allows for testimony and witnesses, and can be “extended.”
Attorney Jeffrey Edwards of the firm Mastagni, Holstedt, Amick, Miller & Johnsen, who represents the correctional officers' and deputy sheriffs' associations, told Lake County News that such hearings “are very routine matters.”
He said most grievances don't go before a Board of Supervisors, but that's the process in Lake County.
Edwards sent letters to the county of Lake late in July asking for the hearings, according to documents released as part of the Aug. 9 board meeting.
Regarding the grievances over sick leave policy, both deputies and correctional officers who call in sick must now follow a procedure set forth in a May 5 directive from Capt. Rob Howe, which stated: “Any employee calling in sick will need to provide what duties or essential job functions they are unable to perform. For those receiving the call, those explanations are to be included in the sick call e-mail notification. All other policies and procedures concerning sick time use remain in effect.”
In his letters to the county, Edwards stated that Rivero's changes violate the memoranda of understanding with the two associations because they add steps to the sheriff's office's sick leave procedure.
In the case of the correctional officers' grievance on the matter, Edwards wrote that they filed a level two grievance with Rivero on May 16, to which he did not respond. The matter then went to Human Resources Director Kathy Ferguson for a level three grievance, which Ferguson denied on July 20.
Similarly, Rivero did not respond to a level three grievance filed by the deputy sheriffs' association in June, and Ferguson denied a level four grievance submitted to her, according to the documents.
In her July 20 letter to Edwards denying the deputy sheriffs' association's grievance, Ferguson said that there is nothing in personnel rules or the memorandum of understanding to preclude an inquiry into what functions the employee could not fulfill.
She added, “While I do not uphold this grievance, I determined through this investigation that there is a communication problem between the department and the employees with regard to this practice that should be remedied as soon as possible. It is clear that some employees do not understand the inquiry, or its purpose, or how to respond properly to that inquiry. It is important that this issue be clarified and that the employees, supervisors and management all have the same clear understanding.”
Ferguson further suggested that Rivero sit down with the association's officers and their representative “to clarify these matters and see that they are then unambiguously communicated to all staff,” adding that her department was happy to facilitate such a discussion.
The correctional officers also are grieving a denial of shift swaps that occurred in June. They stated that such swaps have been regular practice as recently as last year, when Capt. James Bauman was overseeing the jail.
An April 2010 e-mail from Bauman to jail staff, included in the documents, said he understood there may have been a past practice not to allow such swap requests in conjunction with shift signups.
“Whether or not this has actually been the case, I want (to) be perfectly clear that short of any operational impacts, there is no plausible reason to not consider swap requests,” Bauman wrote. He also offered a procedure of how to submit such requests.
Ferguson's investigation included an interview with then-Lt. Vince Monreal, jail commander earlier this year, who said he decided against granting the shift swaps because of operational reasons.
The swaps also were allowing staff with less seniority to get more desirable shifts, so the process was said to be “essentially circumventing the seniority selection process and was causing morale issues,” and was creating problems for the correctional division, according to Ferguson's investigation.
Although there were past practices in place, Ferguson denied the grievance noting that procedure cited “operational impacts” as a reason for denying the swaps.
In the correctional officers' grievance regarding eight-hour days, they also argue that it violates the memorandum of understanding with the county. The board packet did not include a response from Ferguson.
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