If you were unable to attend the Manager’s Membership Meeting, there were a few topics discussed that everyone might be interested in learning about. While the meeting minutes are general in nature and take a while to be posted, we will go into some depth here and relay information we feel is important to the OCMA membership.
Our membership remains constant with well over 80% of eligible managers supporting and belonging to OCMA. In addition, the treasury continues to have healthy balances in our bank and CD accounts.
EQUITY – OCMA is meeting with the County at the end of this month to initiate the Market/Equity Adjustment process. Once OCMA and the County agree on a timeline and the form used in the process, OCMA will send an e-mail announcement and post the form on the website along with appropriate guidelines and instructions. As detailed in the MOU, the total amount of money available is .6% of the OCMA salaries and the maximum adjustment that a manager can receive is 12%. An important note: An increase cannot exceed the advertised maximum rate of a salary range. While any increase is discretionary on the part of the County, OCMA has been successful, year after year, of obtaining increases that uses most or all of the available money. The process is available to all managers, regardless of OCMA membership, however OCMA can only notify members of start of the process if we have a valid personal e-mail address. Good news is that if you have received this update, then we have a valid personal e-mail address for you.
VACATION PLAN AMENDMENT – In the coming weeks, you will be notified of an election concerning the modification of the Vacation Plan. This is NOT associated with a return to Annual Leave. The County approached OCMA to find out if we were interested in changing the way Vacation as accrued for those Managers with 0-3 years of County employment. The way the current plan is set-up, a manager must wait until they have 1, 2 or 3 years of service before Vacation time is provided. The amended plan allows for vacation time to be accrued each pay period. While this is a relatively minor change for the majority of managers, it is important to those to whom it applies. It also requires a vote by the membership, as it is a contractual change. You will receive another e-mail regarding this prior to the vote being taken, and then a separate e-mail that provides you a key to the online voting.
WORK WEEK – A discussion was held at the membership meeting regarding the Work Week and the information provided in the previously sent OCMA e-mail and information posted on the OCMA website. OCMA stands by its interpretation of the MOU and the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of which managers are exempt. OCMA continues to believe that it is not appropriate that when a manager needs to leave an hour early to attend a doctor’s appointment (or some other issue that causes them to be absent for a short period of time from the workplace) that they be compelled to utilize leave time under such circumstances. The MOU is very clear: “Administrative Management employees are not governed by the customary eighty (80) hour work period and may be expected to work more than eighty (80) hours in a given work period or allowed to work less than eighty (80) hours pursuant to the specific dictates of the assignment.” HR has also recently instructed OCMA that managers are to “…post all hours worked, including MOT on VTI timesheets.” While we understand (but do not agree) that different agencies/departments/programs have separate instructions/guidelines on posting time, the only way for a manager to comply with the instructions (I certify that …) when submitting a timesheet via VTI, is to post all hours worked and use MOT (if appropriate) to accurately indicate the time that you work for the County. If this means that if on a Saturday or Sunday, you review work, answer the County issued phone, respond to or write County e-mails that this time when a manager works for the County doing County business needs to be identified on your VTI timesheet. If a timesheet is intended to accurately portray the time you work for the County, the timesheet must include this time.
MANAGEMENT EVALUATION – Another significant issue discussed with the membership was the Management Performance Evaluation. The MOU is (once again) very clear. There is to be a “Compensation Committee Development of New Compensation System.” The agreement states that “Within 60 days of the adoption of this MOU the parties will begin meeting to develop a new compensation system (to replace the Pay for Performance (P4P) Program)… Each party may designate up to seven (7) representatives to serve on the committee. The Assistant Director of Human Resource Services and the President of OCMA will serve as co-chairs of the committee. The purpose of the committee will be to review the current compensation and evaluation systems and recommend modifications to these systems as circumstances merit.” We have met a couple of times with the County but have made no progress. Many OCMA members have reported that the County places the blame of no progress on OCMA. Absolutely nothing could be further from the truth. We have been more than willing to meet with the County to get a Management Evaluation system in place and yet at this moment in time, there are no meetings even scheduled. As a matter of fact, during negotiations and in anticipation of this tactic, OCMA suggested MOU language that required the County to pay the higher amount of 1.75% if a plan was not in place for fear of the County dragging their collective bargaining feet. Unfortunately, members will only receive the 1.5% because a plan has not been created. The silver lining is that everyone (except those at the advertised maximum) will receive a 1.5% increase instead of a sharing of the 1.75% pool that would be awarded based upon performance. Just as an aside, why would OCMA delay development so that managers would receive a smaller increase? The answer is, we would not! We will continue to work towards the development of a plan, but OCMA cannot develop it alone, we need the County’s cooperation.
We understand that this update is rather long and encompasses many issues of concern; rest assured that OCMA will increase our efforts to provide more information (in smaller updates) more frequently.