Democrats have introduced legislation that would require private sector employers to take slightly better care of their employees.

Senate Bill 1234, introduced by Sen. Kevin De Leon (D-L.A.), would require businesses with five or more employees to enroll them in a defined benefit program or offer a comparable alternative plan.

Supporting legislators, including Senate President Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg and Assemblymember Warren Furutani, agree that private sector employees are in need of the same retirement support that special interest groups seek to eliminate for public employees.

"I hear a lot about 'pension envy,'" said Assm. Furutani.

The legislation dropped shortly after a group of Republican legislators submitted a "cut-and-paste" version of Governor Jerry Brown's aggressive pension reform scheme.

You can expect the debate on your earned benefits to heat up even further as your peers address legislators at ACSS Lobby Day in March.

Why isn't my department getting the furlough settlement?

Furloughs were devastating to all state employees. That is why your ACSS - along with organizations like SEIU - fought so hard for so long to overturn them.

In the end, SEIU procured back pay for rank and file employees at five agencies by agreeing to drop all ongoing furlough litigation. Your ACSS and other organizations then successfully fought to get the settlement extended to excluded employees in the impacted agencies.

So why isn't your department on the list of those that received back pay?

An appellate court decision dictated the criterion for exclusion from furloughs:

The court declared furloughs legal for all state agencies except those that did not receive "an item of appropriation" from the annual budget act. The five agencies in the settlement - First 5 California, Prison Industry Authority, California Earthquake Authority, California Housing Finance Agency, and California State Lottery - represent the agencies that receive no money through the budget act. Essentially, these five agencies fall outside the budget process and can therefore compensate employees without impacting the state's General Fund.

Source: SEIU Furlough Litigation Settlement FAQ

GOP leaders have co-opted Governor Brown's twelve point pension plan and introduced it as legislation, despite their refusal to support pension reform in 2010.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg called the "cut-and-paste" tactic of Republican legislators "clever," but lacking in critical analysis.

According to Republican Senator Bob Huff, the legislation reproduces Brown's plan verbatim.

The plan is being introduced as Senate Constitutional Amendment 18 (Huff), Senate Bill 1176 (Huff), Assembly Constitutional Amendment 22 (Smyth), and Assembly Bill (bill # pending) (Smyth).

ACSS members from around the state will urge their legislators to oppose damaging pension reform as part of Lobby Day 2012 in March.

UPDATE: As of Friday, Feb. 17th, furlough back pay has officially been extended to excluded employees at all five affected agencies. ACSS is still working with the agencies to determine how the reimbursement will proceed.

As reported in the Sacramento Bee, two non-general fund agencies announced this week that they will extend furlough back pay to all affected employees, not just rank and file workers.

The California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) will award nearly $8 million in back pay to about 570 employees. The only employees that are not currently set to receive back pay are members of Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) and California Association of Professional Scientists (CAPS), as those organizations are still pressing furlough litigation.

The other agency to award back pay to excluded employees - the First 5 California Commission - employs approximately 35 state workers. First 5 estimates that 50 current and former employees will receive back pay.

As the fight for your pension heads to the legislature, CalPERS has released a detailed chart comparing California Pension Reform's (CPR) two recently dismissed initiatives with Governor Brown's current 12-point pension reform plan.

The chart helpfully breaks the comparison down by the sweeping pension changes that may affect only new hires, those that would affect only current employees' pensions, and those that would affect all employees and potentially retirees.

As Governor Brown's plan moves through the legislature, dozens of groups will be attempting to influence your senators' and assemblymembers' perception of pension reform.

If you're concerned about protecting your pension, join ACSS at the Capitol this March for Lobby Day 2012. It's our chance to show legislators how their decision will really impact Californians like you.

Get registered before the Feb. 17th deadline: www.acssonline.org/lobbyday

The assault on state employee pensions took a hit this week as an investigative report from the Bay Area NBC affiliate uncovered some shocking facts regarding San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's campaign against public employees.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit uncovered internal documents which reveal that projected retirement pension costs for San Jose have been greatly exaggerated.

Mayor Reed has cited repeatedly a projected 2015 pension cost of $650 million in his very public campaign to slash pensions. It is now apparent that Mayor Reed's estimate was artificially inflated to more than twice the actual projected cost that the city will face in 2015.

Read more and watch the embedded NBC story after the jump.

There are dozens of reasons why you should attend ACSS Lobby Day 2012, but some breaking news on pension attacks makes the presence of hundreds of supervisors and managers in the Capitol all the more important.

California Pension Reform (CPR) announced that they are abandoning their anti-pension initiatives and instead refocusing their fight to decimate state employee pensions from the ballot to the legislature.

"We will continue to push our elected representatives to reform our broken pension system and if they fail we will focus on qualifying an initiative for 2014," CPR President Dan Pellissier said in a prepared statement.

CPR will attempt to convince state legislators that you should be retiring later, and with even less.

So how can you fight these new attacks on your pension?

Get involved. Get registered for Lobby Day before the Feb. 17th deadline.

Join your peers at the Capitol in March and tell legislators how important your earned benefits are to you and why California's pension system works, before it's too late.

As we draw closer to election season, dozens of initiatives are being screened by the Secretary of State's office for inclusion on the primary and general ballots.

During its signature gathering phase, we previously reported on initiative 1487. (11-0010), which has since been cleared to appear on the 2012 general election ballot.

This "Political Censorship" ballot measure would severely limit the ability of supervisors and managers to work together to protect their pensions, fix salary compaction issues, and generally keep their careers protected. The sponsors of the ballot measure have cleverly made it appear that they want to limit the political influence of big corporations; however, if the measure is passed our voice will be silenced while corporations continue to spend billions lobbying for their own agendas.

Get the facts, spread the word, and get involved!

See the up-to-date list of qualified ballot measures from the Secretary of State: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures.htm

Want to fight to protect your career and benefits? Join ACSS at Lobby Day 2012: http://www.acssonline.org/lobbyday

The deadline to register for Lobby Day is drawing near.

Lobby Day is our chance to gather hundreds of supervisors and managers in the Capitol and show California how important we truly are.

Register now! Remember, you need to attend the training on March 13th (the night before), so plan accordingly and let us know if you need a hotel room for the 13th.

NOTE: Travel, lodging, and meal expenses for members attending Lobby Day are covered by ACSS.

Your ACSS is pleased to announce the official formation of the California Supervisors and Managers Advisory Council, a group dedicated to improving the careers of excluded employees statewide.

ACSS President Arlene Espinoza worked in conjunction with Assemblymember Joan Buchanan and DPA Director Ron Yank to establish the Council as a forum for ACSS and other excluded employee organizations to work together with DPA to develop and implement solutions to excluded employees issues.

The Council will meet quarterly to address the problems that supervisors and managers face on a daily basis: pay inequity, pension attacks, and generally implementing and running the State's public programs in light of budget cuts, hiring freezes, and layoffs.

Read more about the first meeting of the Council after the jump.

As you may have seen today, SEIU Local 1000 reached an agreement with the Brown Administration to settle lingering lawsuits challenging the furloughs imposed by former Governor Schwarzenegger on non-general fund agencies in 2009 and 2010.

The settlement affects only SEIU members in agencies that receive no appropriations from the state’s General Fund, specifically:

• First 5 California
• Prison Industry Authority
• California Earthquake Authority
• California Housing Finance Agency
• California State Lottery

The affected employees will receive back pay, with interest, for the days they were forced to take off without pay.

Now that precedent has been established, your ACSS will be petitioning DPA to provide a similar adjustment for the eligible excluded employees in the non-general fund agencies.

UPDATE: Though the Sacramento Bee initially reported that the impacted employees would receive back pay with interest, the Bee has since corrected their story, indicating that the agreement will not include interest.

UPDATE #2: The Sacramento Bee also stated that the Office of Administrative Hearings was one of the affected agencies. This is incorrect. The fifth impacted agency is California State Lottery.

CNN's Money Magazine is looking to feature an ACSS member who meets certain criteria in a "financial makeover" story in which they will work with a financial planner to overcome economic difficulties that have resulted from state budget cuts.

UPDATED CRITERIA! Members must meet the following criteria:

* Annual household income of at least $80k
* Currently employed as a state worker
* Between 40-69 years old
* Your financial plans have been negatively impacted by furloughs, pay cuts, the possibility of pension cuts, etc.
* You must be comfortable with your real name, photograph, and financial details being published

If you meet the above criteria, email ACSS at kglidden@calcsea.org with the subject "Financial Makeover", include your full name, age, household salary range, and describe in 100 words or less how state budget cuts have impacted your current or future financial outlook.

DEADLINE EXTENDED! Emails must be received no later than Thursday, February 2nd.

NOTE: Final selections of eligible members will be made by CNN Money.

The California Supreme Court unanimously agreed on Friday to uphold the revised Senate districts drawn by an independent citizens commission for use in the June primary and November general election.

A Republican-backed initiative attempting to throw out the maps drafted by the non-partisan California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CCRC) is expected to qualify for the November ballot. Opponents of the public commission filed the lawsuit, arguing that the independently redrawn Senate map should not be used until the ballot measure challenge passed before voters.

Acting CCRC Chairman Peter Yao - a registered L.A. County Republican - called the high court's decision to uphold the redrawn districts "a great victory for the people of California."

Read more on the participatory democratic efforts of the CCRC: http://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/

The Association of California State Supervisors (ACSS) met with the Department of Mental Health (DMH) on Friday, January 13, 2012, to discuss the Department's transition plan to become the Department of State Hospitals (DSH).

ACSS continues to raises concerns over the impact of decreasing staff ratios on the safety of patients and staff. DMH stated that the changes will enhance safety of both staff and patients because staff is being redirected back to the units. However, ACSS believes simply showing on paper that added staff will be assigned to the units will not necessarily result in greater safety.

Read more about the work we're doing for excluded employees at DMH after the jump.