Court News

Court Membership Meeting

A membership meeting will be held for all members at Superior Court on Wednesday April 9, 2008 at 12 Noon to 1:15 PM room 950 at 111 North Market Street. The Agenda will includeincluse a report from the Business RepresentativeBusijess Representaive on recent representation issues and a discussion from the membershipmemberhip on concernsconcres and issues you wishthey need addressed byfrom CEMA.

All members are urged to attend.

Attention CEMA Court Members

Below are three documents including the Transfer Agreement that memorialize issues CEMA has addressed with the Court in recent months. These items were discussed at the membership meeting held on January 24, 2007. Please review them and if you have any questions or concerns please contract Tom Starkey by June 1, 2007. CEMA will then finalize these agreements with the Court after June 1, 2007.

New Advisory Committee Elected

Over 25 members attended the membership meeting held on January 24, 2007. The most important item of business was the election of new members to serve on the CEMA Court Chapter Advisory Committee. The new Committee is Mary Mitchell from Traffic Court who will again serve as chair of the committee and also serve as the representative to the CEMA Executive Board. Bob Colyar from Probate and and Sarah Scofield from Family Court Services were also elected. The new Court Advisory Committee will serve a two year term and plans to hold their first meeting on February 16, 2006 at the CEMA office at noon. All members are welcome to attend.

Superior Court Membership Meeting

Attention all CEMA members at Superior Court:

Please mark your calendar to attend a CEMA membership Meeting to be held Wednesday, January 24, 2007 in room 950 at 111 N Market Street. The Meeting will take place at 12 Noon to 1:15 PM and the agenda will include the following items:

  1. Nomination and Election of Superior Court Chapter Advisory Committee Members for a 2 year term.
  2. Discussion of Court Internal Transfer Policy.
  3. Report on County CEMA negations and its impact on Court.
  4. Issues of First Line Supervisors and problems with Local 715.
  5. Any issues/questions from the Membership.

Court to pay cost of 2.5 at 55 PERS benefit
Earlier this year CEMA Court members agreed to extend their MOU out to 2010 in exchange for wage increases in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 to a total of 14%. The Court also agreed to maintain health benefits at current levels.

Recently, the County and CEMA have reached agreement for a new three year MOU that calls for the PERS 2.5% at 55 formula enhancement to be  effective on December 17, 2007. The County also agreed to increase term life insurance coverage from $25,000 to $50,000 and to allow employees to purchase up to $500,000 of term life insurance based on annual salary.

CEMA was expecting complicated Meet and Confer sessions on these two issue with the Court. The main concern was who would pay the cost of the PERS enhancement which is 3.91% of salary.

On Friday September 23, 2006, Kiri Torre, Chief Executive Officer, notified CEMA that the Court plans to pickup the cost of the 2.5% at 55 pension enhancement effective December 17, 2006.  They will also pick up the cost of the increase in life insurance effective September 4, 2006.

Court Offers Contract Extension

Superior Court Advisory Committee members Mary Mitchell, Kimberly Henderson and Business Representative Tom Starkey met with Court Administration on Tuesday January 24, 2006 to discuss the recent ratification of an extension agreement with Local 715 SEIU.

At this meeting the Court presented to CEMA a similar proposal that calls for a 3 year extension to our current extension and raises over a 4 year period totaling 14%. All other rights and benefits contained in the current agreement continue until January 2010.The detail of the extension are found at this link.

The CEMA advisory committee has called a membership meeting as noted below to present the extension proposal, discuss it and then vote by secret ballot to accept or reject it. In order for the changes to become effective a majority of members in attendance must vote yes to ratify the agreement. The advisory committee recommends the membership accept this extension agreement.

RATIFICATION MEETING
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 7, 2006
DEPARTMENT 17
OLD COURT HOUSE (FIRST FLOOR)
12:00 NOON TO 1:00 PM

Agenda

  1. REVIEW OF TENTATIVE AGREEMENT
  2. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
  3. SECRET BALLOT VOTE

Attention All CEMA Superior Court Members

This is a reminder that in accordance with our 2004 Extension Agreement with the Court all CEMA Court Employees on the payroll on September 26,2005 will receive a $2,000. payment that will show up on the pay checks issued on October 14, 2005. Employees in leave status will receive the payment when they return to work.

COURT JOB DESCRIPTIONS FINALIZED

We have finalized all remaining issues on the new CEMA job descriptions. The last issue that we addressed involved the alternate staffing of the Information System Specialist I and II. The Court has agreed to treat this classification as alternately staffed which means once the Information Services employee meets the qualifications and has assignments at the Information Specialist II level they will be moved there once a promotional rating form has been completed by the supervisor and the employee. Our members wanted CEMA to insure seniority for purposes of layoff would count for both classifications. Court Management has agreed with this and has proposed a side letter of agreement for CEMA signature. The Advisory Committee has reviewed it and is recommending it be signed. You may review the sideletter here. If you have any concerns regarding the side letter please contact Tom Starkey at tstarkey@sccema.org on or before July 12, 2005. If there are no issues then CEMA will execute the agreement

Superior Court Membership Meeting

Date: July 21st
Time: 12:00 noon - 1:15 pm
Place: 111 North Market, Room 950
The Advisory Committee has called for a General Membership Meeting of all Superior Court CEMA members. The Agenda will include:
  1. Superior Court Liaisons for each worksite.
  2. Discussion and feedback regarding Transfer practices.
  3. 2007 Negotiations Planning.
  4. Any other issues or concerns you may have.

Please mark the date and plan to attend.

Superior Court Training Programs


Training programs for CEMA members at the Superior Court can be found on the Court's intranet under Training. For convenience the programs are outlined below.
  • General
    See the current Course Offering Newsletter for a schedule of the Staff Development & Training upcoming classes offered at the court, as well as a list of classes and seminars available in the Bay Area, including local colleges and universities.
  • Judicial Outreach Training
    see "Leadership Academy" on the intranet
  • IS Training
    For handouts on UCS Training see the "UCS Training Page" on the intranet.
    For information on IS classes, contact the "IS Help Desk" on the intranet
  • Recruitment and Training Unit
    For handouts on court training classes (such as Beyond Bias) see HR Training Resources in the Staff Recruitment and Training section of the Human Resources page of the intranet.
  • TOP Training
    T.O.P. (Training for Office Professionals) is a program providing technical training to both County and Court office professionals. Read more on the TOP page of the intranet.

Early Retirement Window Open

posted 10-29-2004 - The window for members considering retirement in exchange for the two year service credit opened on Monday October 25, 2004 and will close on January 30, 2005. This means that your last day to retire and be eligible for the benefit is Friday January 28th. The original close date was January 22, 2005 but was extended by the Court to January 30th to coincide with the end of a pay period.

Superior Court One Time Payment Delayed

Posted September 13th - As you may know we have agreed to extend our current MOU with terms outlined on the CEMA web page at SCCEMA.org CEMA was informed by the Court that there will be a delay of one pay period to recieve the one time payment. We now expect it to be in the pay checks you recieve on October 1, 2004. I will keep you informed if there is any change to this current plan. Once we have signed the extension agreement we will mail you a copy at your home address. It will also be posted on the web site.

 

Superior Court Chapter Ratifies Two Year Extension

Posted August 25th - At a membership meeting held on Wednesday August 25, 2004 CEMA members voted 31 "yes" and 6 "no" to extend the current MOU to January 14, 2007. Terms of the contract extension can viewed here.

At the meeting members requested that CEMA pursue the possibility of starting the 90 day window for early retirement to late October. Members also requested that the Court issue a seperate check for the one time cash payments. The Court agreed to have the start date for retirement be October 25, 2004. They would not agree to issue the one time payment as a seperate check because the amount deducted is the same even if included with the regular pay check.

The Court is drafting the extenstion agreement for signature and indicated that the first cash payment would probably occurr within the next two pay periods. CEMA will post the extension agreement on the website for your review once we have recieved it from the Court. Once it is signed by all parties we will send it to your home address.

CEMA Superior Court Chapter Membership Meeting


Over 20 members attended the membership meeting held on August 10, 2004. Members elected a new Superior Court Advisory Committee. The members are: Kimberly Henderson, Mary Mitchell and D'Mitra Murphy. Mary Mitchell was selected to be the chair and also will serve on the CEMA Executive Board as the representative for Superior Court. The advisory committee will also serve as your committee for negotiations.

Tom Starkey, CEMA Business Representative reported that the Court had called to inquire if CEMA was interested in extending the terms of the existing MOU, and not do full negotiations. The members directed the new Negotiations Committee to meet with the Court and to find out what the terms of an extension agreement would be and to report back to the membership for direction.

 

The Superior Court's MOU Extension Proposal

 

A meeting was held with the Court on August 17, 2004 to determine what the Court has in mind regarding extending the MOU. The committee received a written proposal from the Court. It can be viewed at the CEMA web page at SCCEMA.org.

The extension agreement calls for: Two year extension of all current provisions to January 14, 2007, continuation of current health benefits and PERS benefits on terms contained in current contract, two year service credit for employees age 50 and older with 5 years of service credit. A 90 day window in which employee's must retire to begin on or about October 1, 2004. Note that eligibility for retiree medical requires you have 8 years of service credit. No wage increase but Court offered $1000 cash payment effective with signing of extension agreement, and $2000 cash payment paid on September 25, 2005. If on leave of absence cash payments paid upon returning to work. Continuation of all other existing contract provisions. The Court indicated that it would consider a request to reopen the contract to discuss economic benefits offered to other employee organizations. The Court made it clear that this is an informal offer and if not accepted it will be withdrawn and negotiation of the entire agreement will commence in the Fall. It was the Courts position that this offer and the discussion regarding it cannot be used during formal negotiations.

The Court laid out a justification for their extension proposal with a clear message that they see the financial picture not getting better for a few years due to the uncertainty with the State budget situation. They told us that they took a $4 million dollar cut from the State in this budget year, and that the budget must absorb over $3 million in increased payments for PERS benefits and Health Insurance coverage. They are also absorbing unanticipated cost associated with the County's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIC)

The Negotiations Committee discussed thoroughly the Courts proposal and decided to recommend that the CEMA membership vote accept the contract extension. The committee believes that it is important to maintain the current health benefits and PERS benefits and those benefits would be subject to erosion if CEMA faced a full negotiation of the entire agreement.  The extension proposal can be viewed here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superior Court Membership Meeting

 

 

CEMA members at Superior Court are invited to a general membership meeting being held on:

 

 

Wednesday August 25, 2004

12 Noon to 1:30 PM

Room  950

111 North Market Street

 

 

The Agenda will include:

  • Review of proposed contract extension and vote to ratify or not to ratify.

  • Discussion of  CEMA's proposed bylaws changes and dues increase.

  • Other issues and concerns

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