PAC Committee Chair: Janet Atkins Phone: 957-5492 email: janet.atkins@ssa.sccgov.org
CEMA President: Amando Cablas Phone: 793-6251 email: amando.cablas@hhs.sccgov.org
PAC Committee Staff: Prudence Slaathaug Phone: 289-9691 email: pslaathaug@sccema.org

November 2010 Election Endorsements

Join the City of San Jose Labor Unions            

Precinct Walking and Phone Banking

Meet and Greet City Council and

Board of Supervisors Candidates

When:              October 16^th

Time:              9:00 a.m.

Where:            South Bay Labor Council

                        2102 Almaden Rd

                        San Jose, CA

BBQ lunch will be provided

Fundraiser

Maria Fuentes for

San Jose/Evergreen Community College Board          

When:              Thursday, October 21^st

Where:            UFCW Hall

                        240 S Market St

                        San Jose, CA

Time:               5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

RSVP:               (408) 449-7777

Suggested Donation:  $35 - $100

2010 Board Race – It’s All About the 2011 Contract

The 2010 Board of Supervisor District #4 seat will offer an exciting opportunity to select a candidate who best represents the interests of CEMA members. Don Gage will be termed out and several candidates have announced for the seat, most notably Forrest Williams, former City of San Jose councilmember and Teresa Alvarado, a newcomer who has garnered support from current and former office holders. The challenge will be to develop an endorsement process that is inclusive and transparent. Since, there are indications that CEMA members and CEMA retirees have already committed to support different candidates, it’s crucial that the process is fair and tightly managed so that each candidate is treated equally in the effort to secure a CEMA endorsement.

Our contract expires in 2011 and by all estimates the County budget will not improve, but worsen with the use this year of one-time monies. We need a well-qualified, experienced, pro-employee Supervisor elected in 2010 to protect and improve our rights, our wages and benefits. The PAC will lead that effort.

Lobbying - Telecommuting

During each campaign cycle CEMA conducts interviews with the candidates and records answers to the questions on issue important to CEMA members. CEMA then works to hold them to their word while they serve on the Board.

The PAC will be supporting the push to develop a policy and offer telecommuting to CEMA members by meeting with the Supervisors on the issue and reminding them of commitments made during the campaign. In the 2008 campaign, candidates were asked this question:

In 2008, three seats were open and filled by Liz Kniss, Dave Cortese and George Shirakawa. Here’s how they answered:

• President Kniss – “I would consider a pilot project for an identified and agreed upon group of managers where it is determined they can perform while telecommuting.”
• Dave Cortese – “Yes.”
• George Shirakawa – “I will support more rights such as flex schedules and telecommuting as long as there is a process to ensure productivity.”

Clearly, not resounding support, but a good starting point to move the County administration off the historic “NO” that CEMA has heard for years in negotiations.

The effectiveness of our political action program depends on following a systematic process of promoting our objectives, securing commitments of support and holding the official accountable, once they are in office.

If any of you would like to attend meetings with Supervisors about telecommuting, just call the Union office.

CEMA POLITICAL ACTION

Adopted by The CEMA Executive Board on April 2, 2007

PURPOSE

• The Purpose of the CEMA Political Action Committee (PAC) is to prepare and execute a Political Action Plan and Work Plan that reflects wide member involvement in the activities of the CEMA PAC. The committee then makes recommendations on whom to endorse, what resources to utilize and the amount of monies to be used from the CEMA PAC Fund. The PAC will keep the Work Plan updated as events and issues arise.
• A primary activity of the PAC is electing CEMA endorsed candidates in all 5 Board of Supervisor Districts and the three elected department heads: Assessor, Sheriff and District Attorney. The PAC may also work to elect CEMA endorsed Superior Court Judge seats. The PAC also needs to track and, when appropriate, support state and federal candidates and issues that have direct effect on the CEMA membership. The PAC will also consider ballot measures that have a direct effect on the membership, consistent with the criteria established and approved by the Executive Board of CEMA .
• The composition of the PAC comes from the membership of CEMA. The committee chair is appointed by CEMA Executive Board. The committee, as noted in the CEMA By-laws, is “responsible for political advocacy and action on behalf of CEMA”. The Committee makes recommendations to the Executive Board who makes all final decisions regarding the political action efforts of CEMA. The CEMA Political Action Program has complete autonomy with the District 90 Operating Engineers Local 3 Political Action Committee.

ONGOING STRATEGIES TO BUILD AN EFFECTIVE PAC

• Build CEMA member involvement and ownership by showing results that improve the members’ terms and conditions of employment due to direct political action.
• Keep working from within our membership to find politically connected members with history of political activism to participate in CEMA‘s political action goals.
• Phone call the CEMA membership to insure they are supporting CEMA endorsed candidates and issues and solicit ways they can become involved in the activities of the PAC.
• Build strong relations with the District 90 OE3 Grievance/COPE Committee. Build awareness of middle manager issues and work collaboratively to build Political action success for both CEMA and OE3.
• Build strong relations with the South Bay Labor Council COPE committee by participating in their COPE process and building coalitions in the Labor Council to insure that Labor Council endorsed candidates support Middle Manager issues.
• Build alliances with community organization that share CEMA’s Political Action plan and strategies. We need to recruit CEMA members who are also members of these community organizations so they can advance CEMA/Labor interests as well.
• Groom our own members to run for an elected County office. We currently have members who are elected office holders and can help us with developing other CEMA members to run for County offices.
• Continue ongoing efforts to politically educate our membership through topics at the Professional Development Luncheons, articles in the CEMAGRAM and repeating as often as possible the message “Politics is CEMA Business”.
• Build the economic resources of the CEMA PAC by encouraging member participation in the dues diversion authorization and doing fundraiser efforts among the membership.
• Lobby Board of Supervisors members and elected Department Heads and the County Executive on issues critical to the membership during contract negotiations periods and continue an ongoing board visitation and relationship building program to keep board members aware of our issues and concerns.
• Develop information in the membership data base regarding voter registration and work to keep the CEMA membership registered to vote.

FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED WHEN PRIORITIZING SUPPORT

• CEMA needs to continually work to refine through member involvement the criteria that will be followed when endorsing candidates or issues.
• The following are the current factors that the PAC will consider when making a decision to support a candidate or issue important to CEMA.:

1. Candidate Support
   1. Champion Santa Clara County Middle Management issues and concerns.
   2. Strong support for CEMA’s critical contract issues such as full paid health benefits, reclassification rights, special compensations, additional time off and leave rights and other organization issues that might arise.
   3. Endorsement by South Bay Labor Council Committee on Political Education (COPE).
   4. Support of the employee organizations whom they will govern.
   5. Ability to run viable campaign
   6. Demonstrated knowledge and ability to be effective office holder once elected
2. Initiatives/Policy/Legislation
   1. Degree to which the issue/measure affects or benefits members directly
   2. Degree to which the issue/measure affects the community our members live in
   3. Degree to which the issue/measure has impact on broader labor issues

ENDORSEMENT PROCESS

• At the beginning of each year the PAC will publish the Political Action Plan for member comment and input. The plan will identify issues or races that CEMA plans to be involved in that are important to the members of CEMA.
• CEMA will notify members of an endorsement meeting in which candidates will be invited to attend to be interviewed. The meeting and process will be open to the entire membership. At the discretion of the PAC and Executive Board the CEMA endorsement meeting can be combined with the South Bay Labor Council PAC or the OE3 District 90 PAC or other organizations.
• Questions will be prepared by the PAC based on the criteria for endorsement noted above. The PAC will normally expect the candidate to answer the same questions in writing as well.
• Members present at the endorsement meeting will be given a rating sheet to rate how the field of candidates answered the questions and to rate their preference for the candidate that should be endorsed by CEMA.
• Once the endorsement meeting has been held, the PAC will make recommendations to the Executive Board based on the candidate interviews member input, and the criteria for endorsement. They will also make recommendations on specific ways that the membership will assist in getting the CEMA endorsed candidate elected or the measure passed.
• The timing of the endorsement meeting will be held after considering when the South Bay COPE, other labor organizations and OE3 make their endorsement decisions.