El Dorado County Employees Association, Local #1    

JANUARY MINUTES

ROLL CALL

Present:  Jennifer Rimoldi, Darleen Giampaoli, Tina Acree, Bryan Vyverberg,, Tim Pitt, Tom Cheney, Chris Baker, Greg Hicks, Helen Keith

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS

SALUTE TO THE FLAG

ADOPTION OF AGENDA, CHANGES AND/OR DELETIONS

Timothy Pitt - Motion; Bryan - Second;

Jennifer - Swear in Darleen Giampaoli.  Darleen Giampaoli sworn in. 

Jennifer - Swear in Chris Baker.  Chris Baker sworn in. 

MINUTES: December 5, 2023

Minutes tabled until next meeting.

Bryan - Note in next agenda that there will be two months of meeting minutes. 

TREASURERS REPORT

Jennifer - Treasurer’s report tabled for this month.

REPORTS OF PRESIDENT & OFFICERS

• Negotiations Update - Jennifer.  No updates yet.  Negotiator met with the County today.  Need to push the County to get the negotiations moving/concluded

• Jennifer - Byron, Chris, and Jennifer attended Local 1 meeting.  Local 1 is doing a 3rd party audit for themselves.  International is doing an audit as well.  Want to avoid the audit from being done by internal staff. 

• Chris Baker - I agree that the 3rd party audit is needed.  Question.  When did the MOU end, and how does that affect things?

• Jennifer -  the MOU ended, but all protections and benefits are still there until there is a new contract in place.

• Jennifer - Retro pay is definitely on the table to help limit stalling.  However, retroactive pay is not guaranteed. 

• Chris Baker - Can we add any people to the negotiations team?  I would like to sit in and get a gauge of how it goes?

• Tina - Let’s look at what we can do at this point. 

STAFF & COMMITTEE REPORTS

• Jennifer - I want to include a shop steward report to this section.  Greg Hicks has been having monthly shop steward meetings.  I think that it would be good for the Board to hear about what is going on with the shop stewards. 

• Jennifer - I would like to start a spreadsheet listing people that the shop stewards are working with. 

• Tina - We cannot talk about individual staff issues at our Board meetings.  Staff information is protected. 

• Jennifer - Can we bring up situations?  Tina - Yes. 

ONGOING BUSINESS

• Tina - When do you want to talk about organizing items?

• Jennifer - Now is OK. 

• Events - Rivercats game, bowling at Red Hawk, Winery Event, Tahoe Event

• Events - Need to get costs together for the Tahoe event. 

• Bowling - winter; Tahoe - summer; Rivercats - when in season;

• Costs - Estimate costs that are reasonable to up chances of getting request approved. 

• Open house - Have open house days at the office around Easter.  Spend some money to improve the office and encourage people to come and visit the Union office. 

• Open house - hot cocoa bar, cookies, something fun to encourage members to be involved. 

• Tina - We need cost information as soon as possible. 

• Jennifer - Have proposals ready by January 19th (end of next week) so we can put in a request. 

NEW BUSINESS

• Received donation request from El Dorado County Office of Education for a wrestling event.  What type of donations do we typically give out?

• Greg Hicks - Do any of our members have students who are in the wrestling program? 

• Greg Hicks - The process is is Helen makes a motion to donate money to the cause.  If we get a second, then we talk about the money.  After that we put it to a final vote. 

• Helen - I move that we donate $500 to the El Dorado County Office of Education to support their wrestling event.  Greg Hicks - Second.  Jennifer - Vote.  Motion Carries. 

• Greg Hicks - I have some items to discuss.  We may have to say no to some of the requests for funding.  Chris - Do we have our own funds?  How does the money part work for making donations?  Jennifer - It comes from our own funds to use for local causes.  Helen.  From what I remember from our last Treasurer’s report, we have around $45,000 in the bank. 

ADJOURNMENT

Helen Keith - I move that we adjourn.  Darlene Aiello - Second.  Vote - Motion Carries

FEBRUARY MINUTES

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. ROLL CALL/ATTENDANCE

   1. Jennifer Rimoldi, Darleen Giampaoli, Tina A, Vyverberg, Tom Cheney, Chris Baker, Greg Hicks, Helen Keith, Tina Acree (C57 Staff), Byron Saylor, Chris Jones, Alex Flores

3. MEETING MINUTES

   1. December minutes were not approved. 

   2. Need to approve the minutes from December, January, and February.

   3. Motion:  Edit minutes for December to include the new check signers.  New check signers are Helen Keith, Jennifer Rimoldi, and Bryan Vyverberg.  Adopt the changes tonight.  M/S/C. 

   4. Table rest of meeting minutes. 

   5. Approve December minutes.  January minutes will be approved at the March meeting. 

   6. Sworn in:  Michelle

4. FINANCIAL REPORT

   1. Financial report:  February.  Checks and payments; Deposits and other credits.  

   2. Have some uncleared items left.  Some of the checks are from 2017.  EDCEA checks do not expire. 

   3. Recommendation:  Issue a stop payment on the checks. 

   4. Dues report:  2023/2024.  About 550 paying dues members.  998 eligible members total. 

5. OFFICER REPORT

   1. PRESIDENT

      1. We need more Stewards.  As we have fewer people, we will need more Steward involvement.

      2. Meeting with Veerkamp and Turnboo.  Wendy Thomas refuses to meet with EDCEA.  Other 3 BOS have not responded.  Hidahl, Parlin,

      3. Need to have a plan for HSSA

         1. The last set of negotiations negatively impacted HSSA. 

         2. We need to start having HSSA have a positive mindset about the Union. 

         3. We need to boost our membership numbers. 

         4. Show the employees we are trying to help them.

         5. Need to understand the problems at HSSA before we can start working on solutions. 

      4. Web Statistics

         1. We have website site performance statistics.  We have had a 7% increase in people coming to our website.  Returning visitors are decreasing.  Members are reading the newsletters and flyers that Jennifer is putting together. 

         2. Important that the membership hears from us frequently. 

      5. Appointments with Current Supervisors & Candidates running for D 1,2&3

   2. VICE PRESIDENT

      1. Did an NEO this month.  4/6 signed up.  Darlene is going to be helping out with them.  Others who are interested can participate. 

   3. SLT VICE PRESIDENT – CHRIS BAKER

      1. No items. 

   4. SECRETARY

      1. CORRESPONDENCE (MAIL, LETTERS, EMAIL, ETC.)

   5. TREASURER

   6. CHIEF STEWARD

      1. Member denied a pay increase in association with a certificate.  Certificate was from ICO.  MOU speaks to the ICB.  Many members are collecting extra pay from certificates. 

      2. Rectify MOU language to ICB instead of ICO. 

6. EXECUTIVE BOARD/REGIONAL AREA REPRESENTATION

   1. Chris Baker last Local 1 Meeting.  Giants game tickets approved.  Discussed some of the other bargaining units.  Contra Costa teacher’s association is struggling.  Received AFCME’s PAC representative.  Interesting and it could be a resource that we could use. 

   2. First AFSCME delegate meeting.  Elected a new president.  Chris Pilson is the new president.   They work  for the City of San Jose.

   3. AFSCME is making a push to raise member dues.  The Locals are pushing back.  The Locals want an audit to be done.  Pushing for an independent audit. 

   4. Getting member rates up is being pushed so there is no reason to raise member dues. 

   5. Audit will take/start in approximately 3 months. 

   6. Tina – Audit from the International.  Auditing the database for cards.  There will be a separate audit on the financial side.

7. COMMITTEE REPORTS

   1. POLITICAL (PAC)

      1. Starting the process of talking with new BOS candidates.  Interview process whose results will be taken to The Local.  Friday is our first meetings to start talking with candidates.  When Veerkamp first reached out, they had set up an evening at the office and BOS candidates could come to the office and meet with EDCEA Local 1. 

      2. Vet candidates through correct process.

      3. Margaret Fortune.  Should try to meet with her. 

      4. Can we vet candidates after their primary?  Yes. 

   2. ORGANIZING

      1. REPORT OUT ON 10 NON-MEMBERS

         1. JENNIFER RIMOLDI

            1. Reached out to all.  Reached out to Rick Blake.  Got longevity taken away as reason to leave. 

            2. Have not gotten a response back from people. 

         2. HELEN KEITH  

            1. Some supportive of Union but needs to run financials. 

         3. BRYAN VYVERBERG

            1. Change phrasing.  Our Union instead of “The Union” so they can relate more.  Let people know that it is “Our Union”

         4. GREG HICKS

            1. Jess Melcher. 

         5. DARLENE AIELLO

            1. Got two people not on list! 

         6. TIMOTHY PITT

            1. Has a few people that may be interested. 

         7. CHRIS BAKER

            1. I didn’t have a list of people to contact. 

         8. CHRIS JONES

            1. Haven’t reached out yet.  Hoping to use negotiations as a recruitment tool to push people. 

         9. BYRON SAYLOR

            1. Chandra is a maybe.  John is a yes.  Ashley Johnson is a maybe.  Craig Newton signed. 

         10. Sending out a list of 10 new people with people from old list as well. 

             1. Find out why non-member, what issues are with our Union, connect with everybody. 

      2. ORGANIZING EVENTS

         1. BOWLING – Change date to 2/21 – updated flyer.  RSVP to Tina.  Chat with members out of office. 

         2. OPEN HOUSE - EASTER BUNNY – Cameron Park Community Center, Classroom A & B, Saturday, March 16, 2024, from 10am – 2pm.  Cameron Park will donate the Easter Bunny costume and the person wearing it, AFSCME will  bring Snacks (cookies, etc.), drinks (water &  juice boxes), plastic eggs with toys, easter candy, backdrop, and maybe a simple craft project for young kids.  We will need a flyer as well.

         3. RIVER CATS

            1. Presenting to the Local Board on the 20th

         4. SLT BEACH

            1. Got quote from Zephyr Cove.  Costs around $5000 to have a catered event in the summer.  Tina – It may be difficult to sell a ribeye steak meal.  Could do a taco bar.  It is around $48 per person. 

            2. Cost to rent the beach costs $2000 without catering.  Food is $3000

            3. Lets think about it some and maybe consider a different venue with lower costs. 

            4. May be helpful if we had other quotes from other locations. 

         5. WINERY

            1. Emailing Jennifer at Starfield.  Waiting to hear back from her.  It may not be an event that they are interested in doing due to changes in events allowed at wineries. 

            2. Idea – If bowling is successful, maybe we could do a second event. 

         6. OPEN HOUSE – SANTA

            1. Still on the table.  If Easter Bunny goes well, we could be able to do another partnership with Cameron Park. 

            2. Helen – Have coworker with a Santa Suit that she could let us use. 

8. OLD BUSINESS

   1. Negotiations Update – Jen

      1. County is looking for ways to pay employees more.

      2. County has offered a supposal.

      3. EDCEA Local 1 has also developed a supposal to present to the County. 

 

1. NEW BUSINESS

   1. AFSCME Opt-out requests process and documentation – Jen

      1. Table until next meeting. 

2. BA REPORT

   1. Follow up on finding a PR Firm.

      1. Tina – Talked with PR Firm.  PR Firm is excited about working with us.  Send some of our data to them. 

      2. PR Firm would give us opportunity to look at their work next Monday evening at 6PM. 

      3. Firm specializes in Union work. 

      4. Some differences will be needed because there is a different dynamic in EDC than in other areas. 

 

1. GOOD & WELFARE (RETIREMENTS, PUPPIES, ETC.)

   1. Jennifer – Thank you everyone for your hard work. 

   2. Debbie – Last official meeting.  Treasurer position will be vacant at end of February. 

   3. Make sure that our Union members know about the EDCEA Local 1 scholarship. 

2. ANNOUNCEMENTS

   1. Officer & Communications Training Make up February 23, 2024

   2. Basic Steward Training – February 28, 2024 from 8:30am – 4:30pm – 14 slots still available.

   3. Local 1 Organizing Committee, Tuesday February 13, 2024 6pm

   4. Local 1  EBoard Meeting Tuesday, February 20, 2024 at 630pm via zoom.

3. CLOSED SESSION

   1. Shop Steward discussion (if needed) – No items for today. 

4. ADJOURN

5. NEXT E-BOARD MEETING – March 5, 2024 @ 6:30pm via ZOOM.