The Department of Personnel Administration, the very state agency entrusted with ensuring fairness in administering compensation and benefits to the state work force, had abandoned the excluded employee with callous indifference. In their “Mission Statement” DPA states that it “creates and administers compensation and benefits .. and advocates for the interests of the State employer.” It doesn’t say “advocates just for rank and file”or “not for excluded employees,” but that is how DPA has handled its advocacy duties.

ACSS is working to change this long-standing pattern of exclusion. We are striving to bring fairness back into the state’s compensation, benefits and classification practices for all employees. We are working to elevate excluded employees back to a status that reflects their contribution to the government’s programs and personnel and to the citizens of California. We are doing this through hard work, legislative advocacy and specialized networking, and all with the highest professional standards as we stand in front of the Legislature and top-level decision-makers and represent YOU.

It has definitely taken time, but our efforts and contributions finally have been noticed.

I have testified before the California Performance Review Commission and the Little Hoover Commission, as well as in other formal settings. I spent 18 months as a voting member of the State Excluded and Exempt Employees Salary-setting Task Force, and I have addressed the governor on behalf of excluded employees while attending the Sacramento Press Club functions. ACSS has offered its resources, time and expertise to educate members of this administration about the contributions and issues of state managers, supervisors and confidentials and, after consistently and constantly delivering your message, ACSS is now a recognized resource on excluded employee issues.

But, many of you are asking, after all this work and dedication, why were we passed over for necessary and deserved raises? The answer is: The system is broken and no one was looking to fix it!

Do these questions sound familiar: What hasACSS done for me? Why should I belong to ACSS since I get the benefits you earn for me even if I am not a member? Or, even the veiled threat of: I won’t join until AFTER you get me a raise!

These are the questions and statements I hear as I meet with excluded employee groups and individuals throughout the state. These are the reasons why excluded employees don’t talk with one clear voice. It is why so many small groups claim to represent excluded employees, but accomplish so very little. It is because we – excluded employees – have allowed ourselves to become weak and separated from each other, speaking individually instead of collectively. We have forgotten the main lesson we learned when we were rank and file: We are stronger together! As long as we speak with one voice, our message can and WILL be heard!

We have allowed DPA and others to capitalize on this division. We allowed ourselves to become fractured, weak and narrowly focused, and we have paid dearly for it.

But ACSS never gave up, never lost sight of why its members joined our organization. We have never forgotten that YOU are the reason ACSS exists, even those of you who have been standing at a distance watching.

Our fight is not over. California’s compensation and benefits system is broken, and unless we help fix it we will be victimized over and over again by a system that has ignored its management team. We need a strong membership with voices that can be heard clearly, loudly, collectively .. and that can only happen if our numbers grow.

Ask your colleagues to join ACSS. Ask them if they still have a pension, still have vacation days, still have a dependable future and benefits they can rely on. Tell them it is ACSS that is working to maintain these benefits .. and improve them systematically.

Our fight is far from over! Help ACSS continue to grow so that we can continue to represent you, and more importantly, gain for you the reward and recognition you deserve.

Tim P. Behrens

(As printed in the November 2006 issue of "Today's Supervisor")