ACSS has been flooded with questions after the announcement of Governor Brown's revised budget and the millions of dollars in cuts therein.

Here are some of the most common questions we've received, and the best answers we have at this time.

Have a question not listed here? Send it to budgetcuts@acssonline.org

The 5% cut plan - namely the four-day, 38-hour workweek - seems to be tailored to rank and file employees. How will supervisors be affected?
Your ACSS is preparing to meet with Gov. Brown to discuss how his plan will affect all excluded employees. We'll have more details for you soon.

I work at a facility that never closes, how can I be expected to close it one day a week?
The budget stipulates that for those employees in 24/7 facilities, "commensurate reductions in work hours and pay" will be applied in lieu of closures.

Read more FAQs after the jump.

How will the revised budget - and the four-day, 38-hour workweek - impact you as an excluded employee?

ACSS Board Member Danilo Sanchez spoke with CBS Bay Area about the unique challenges that supervisors, managers, and confidential employees will face in light of the layoffs and reduced workweek proposed in the Governor’s newly released budget.

Watch the interview here (Mr. Sanchez’s portion begins at around 1:05)

Governor Jerry Brown announced today that his revised budget will target state workers with a 5% compensation cut that will be implemented in a 4-day, 38-hour workweek.

The deficit has been estimated at about $16 billion, as opposed to the $9 billion that was originally anticipated.

The reduced workweek will affect "the majority of state employees", and results in a nearly $840 million cut across the board.

For those employees in 24/7 facilities, "commensurate reductions in work hours and pay" will be applied.

The budget also indicates that "an additional 11,000 positions will be permanently eliminated."

As ACSS prepares to meet with Governor Brown to address the concerns of excluded employees in light of these cuts, we need to hear from you.

Please take five to ten minutes out of your day and send us a brief explanation of how this shortened workweek will impact your ability to implement and facilitate state programs.

Give us practical, specific examples of how your ability to provide services to California taxpayers will suffer.  Don’t just tell us "My job will be impossible!" Tell us why.

How will losing staff, having existing staff working fewer hours, and even being forced to work a less than 40-hour week yourself impact state services?

Will your DMV office be able to process 2,000 fewer licenses per week? Will 25,000 fewer tourists be able to visit your park per week? Will the state’s air or water quality suffer?  Will processing times for tax returns double?

With your help we’ll be able to provide the full picture to Governor Brown and the public.

Please email your responses to kglidden@calcsea.org ASAP.

Just days before releasing his revised budget, members of Governor Brown's administration announced that the revision will include unspecified cuts in employee costs up to ten percent.

Though your ACSS has supported Gov. Brown's proposed temporary revenue increases as a means to balance the budget, it appears that the state may once again try to balance the budget on the backs of its employees as the Governor seeks to cut some $750 million from state employees.

Though the cuts have not yet been specified, sources speculate that direct pay reductions, higher benefit contributions, furloughs, and layoffs are all potential outcomes.

The Governor's Budget Revision will be released on Monday, May 14th.

The Department of Personnel Administration released a memo this week announcing a reduction in premiums for excluded employees enrolled in the Basic Group Term Life Insurance Program.

Effective July 1, 2012, the premiums will change as outlined here:

If you have any questions regarding this announcement, please contact DPA Benefits Program Analyst Patty Rosales-Abila at (916) 324-5553 or Patty.RosalesAbila@calhr.ca.gov

A bill supported by your ACSS that would require the state to report the potential costs of raises for excluded employees when analyzing union contracts was passed by the Senate 36-0 and is now headed to the Assembly.

While DPA is required by law to provide a fiscal analysis of union contracts, it is not required to do the same for the supervisors, managers, and confidential employees that are excluded from collective bargaining.

Your ACSS is committed to resolving pay disparity. While SB 1113 will not directly impact the imbalance in salaries between excluded employees and the rank-and-file employees they supervise, requiring a financial breakdown of the potential costs for excluded employee raises is the first step to rectifying the state's mistreatment of its most skilled employees.

Though earlier versions of SB 1113 required the state to directly "address salary compaction and parity concerns for excluded employees," that language has since been stricken from the bill.

The fight for furlough back pay is nearing a close for supervisors and managers in five departments that do not receive appropriations from the state's General Fund: the California Lottery, First 5 California Commission, Prison Industry Authority, Earthquake Authority, and Housing Finance Agency.

Your ACSS labor relations team reached out to the impacted departments and received replies from the First 5 California Commission and CALPIA.

In addition, the State Controller's Office released a letter further outlining the settlement.

See First 5 and CALPIA's statements after the jump.

DPA has announced the addition of a new basic supervision course called "California Model Employer Initiative Training" to its online training library.

According to DPA:

"This free interactive training will help new supervisors meet 2.5 hours of the required basic supervisory training pursuant to PML 2010-013 and Government Code Section 19995.4. Topics covered include:

• Role of a Supervisor,

• Techniques of Supervision,

• Staffing, and

• Employment Law relating to People with Disabilities.

The training will help you recruit, interview, hire, retain, and accommodate people with disabilities.

As with all training, staff should get their supervisor's and/or training officer's approval before taking this training. At the end of the module, the employee can print a completion certificate for the training office to use in tracking training."

A new report by the Franchise Tax Board reveals that your ACSS' fight to prevent drastic cuts to your earned benefits may not be necessary after all.

State tax officials estimate that California revenues will fall short by some $10 billion this year, due to abuses of the tax system by businesses and individuals.

In one case, a couple that owned seven sandwich shops avoided paying taxes for four years and hid in excess of $800,000 of income. In 2008, another couple that owned two El Dorado painitng companies failed to report nearly $550,000 in income.

Another $2.3 billion in sales and use taxes will go uncollected this year, partially due to citizens skirting sales tax via Internet purchases.

Republican legislators recently submitted a budget calling for a nearly 5% pay cut to all state employees - in addition to millions of dollars in cuts to early childhood education, mental health services, and more - in lieu of supporting Gov. Brown's modest revenue increase proposal.

Though tax evasion will likely continue to be a problem, your ACSS firmly supports the Governor's temporary revenue increases - a 1/4-cent sales tax increase and a modest tax increase on households earning above $500,000 annually - which will appear on the November General Election ballot.

Don't allow legislators to balance the budget on the backs of state employees yet again! Stand up and vote YES on Gov. Brown's revenue increases this fall.

Stand up for your pension now!

On the heels of GOP legislators submitting a budget that would cut pay for all state workers, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has said that drastically changing public employee pensions is the "right thing to do", and should be done in 2012.

Take one minute of your day to send a united message against unfair pension reform by emailing, faxing, or reading by phone the following message to Senate President Pro Tem Steinberg:

State Capitol, Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4006
Fax: (916) 323-2263
Email: Senator.Steinberg@senate.ca.gov

Senator Steinberg;

I am a state excluded employee and member of the Association of California State Supervisors.

Like many of my fellow voters, I support Gov. Brown's temporary revenue increases to balance the budget, but refuse to do so if it means destroying my hard-earned, modest benefits.

I urge you to reconsider extreme pension reform as a means to passing those crucial temporary revenue increases.

I support eliminating the very rare instances of abuse like "spiking", but I cannot support a plan that relies on risky 401(k) investments and drastic retirement age increases.

I have planned carefully for my retirement, and have done my part to keep working for the future of California even as Gov. Brown's predecessor slashed my pay by 14%.

Please don't balance the budget on the backs of public employees yet again.

Your name, Job Title
Contact Info

Keep an eye on your mailbox for the newest edition of ACSS Quarterly, featuring articles on Lobby Day 2012, upcoming changes at CSEA, and more!

In the meantime, feel free to browse through last quarter's issue on our news page.

One of the most frequent calls we receive here at ACSS are from supervisors or managers needing emergency representation who are not already members.

Unfortunately, we cannot help in these situations because our bylaws state that you must be a member of ACSS before a problem arises in order for our labor relations team to assist you. Generally, these excluded employees haven't heard about ACSS until they need us, and at that point it is too late.

In order to prevent this from happening - and to continue building the power of our statewide political voice - we're trying to make it easier for future ACSS members to get pertinent information about ACSS at work.

ACSS is sending representatives out into your worksites to find the best location for a bulletin board. While you wait for your lunch to heat up in the microwave or for that elevator, you and your co-workers will have a chance to peruse meeting notices, learn about your rights as an excluded employee, and who to contact in case of those rights being violated.

If you are interested in helping us find the best location to hang a bulletin board where you work, or you'd be willing to update the board for us, please contact ACSS Labor Relations Representative Regina Jenkins at rjenkins@calcsea.org.

In order to fix California's budget defecit, ACSS supports Gov. Brown's temporary, modest revenue increases.

Republican legislators think they've found a better way to balance the budget - by slashing your salary yet again.

No, you didn't suddenly wake up in the middle of the Schwarzenegger administration again; however, if you and your family aren't voting to pass Gov. Brown's modest revenue increases on the General Eleciton ballot you may soon be feeling "Total Recall".

The GOP budget plan - which would unilaterally force at least 4.6% pay cuts on state employees in the form of furloughs or salary reductions - also includes provisions to siphon millions of dollars away from early childhood development programs, affordable housing programs, and mental health services.

Read more about Gov. Brown's solution to the budget deficit after the jump.

The Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Security voted today in favor of legislation that will, among other things, impact the timeline of adverse actions and will give priority to state employees when filling public positions.

In February, Assemblymember Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) introduced Assembly Bill 1655 - dubbed the Public Employees' Bill of Rights Act - that would reduce the statute of limitations on serving an adverse action against any state employee from three years to one year. In addition, the bill stipulates that state employees shall be entitled to priority over third-party contractors when filling public positions.

The original version of Assm. Dickinson's bill gave rank-and-file state employees preference in filling positions ahead of excluded employees (in addition to outside contractors); however, Assm. Dickinson has since revised the bill to remove the reference to excluded employees.

Read more about how AB 1655 will affect supervisors and managers after the jump.

ACSS 2012 Chapter Elections are ramping up yet again.

As members were previously notified, the deadline to submit nomination consent forms and candidate statements was March 26th at 5 p.m.

The next step in the elections process will be HQ sending out elections packets - including candidate statements, ballots, instructions, and more - to all ACSS members in good standing no later than April 20th.

This is your chance to elect who will lead you at a local level and who will represent your chapter at key events.

Have questions regarding elections in the meantime? Contact ACSS Administrative Assistant Martina McKenzie at mmckenzie@calcsea.org