The State Worker

Gov. Jerry Brown today vetoed legislation that would have required state agencies and departments to post all examination and job vacancies on the State Personnel Board's website.

Assembly Bill 1395 passed 37-0 in the Senate and 77-0 in the Assembly. Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Alameda, said the measure would level the playing field for laid-off state workers who sought other government jobs.

Along with the mandate for online posting of tests and vacancies, the measure would have required the names of laid off employees in narrowly-defined, department-specific job classifications be placed on employment lists for comparable statewide classifications.

The Department of General Services will shut down four facilities for holding state vehicles and focus all operations on its Sacramento garage, Director Fred Klass announced Wednesday.

"The state garage in Sacramento, near most state employees, makes sense--but brick and mortar locations elsewhere have become too costly," Klass said in a statement.

The 26 employees at the Fresno, Los Angeles and Oakland garages along with the San Diego office will have a chance to move to open positions within DGS or receive priority for other state posts for which they qualify.

Klass's order also will eliminate preventative maintenance operations at the Sacramento garage.

DGS said the closings will save the state $2 million annually -- consistent with Gov. Jerry Brown's efforts to reduce the size of state government. The winding down of operations will begin later this year.

"We cannot continue the status quo with our state fleet operations by maintaining non-essential facilities," Klass said in the statement. "Although the employees who work in at these garages do a fine job, the data shows us that the garages are no longer cost beneficial for taxpayers in supporting state government."

DGS spokesman Eric Lamoureux said in recent years fewer state workers had been picking up cars from the remaining state garages outside of Sacramento. The state has a contract with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which often serves as a more convenient location for employees to get cars.

Some of the facilities were built more than 50 years ago to service state vehicles, according to DGS. But service and repair now also can be handled at private shops.

Brown issued an executive order in January that called for the state to cut in half its fleet of 11,000 nonessential passenger cars and trucks. Vehicles at the garages to be closed will be moved to Sacramento or dropped from the state fleet per the governor's order.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post has been changed to reflect that DGS amended a previous statement to say that the state's leases for the Oakland and Los Angeles facilities will not be renewed. The Fresno location is part of a state complex and will become a parking garage. The San Diego office is in a state office building.

PHOTO CREDIT: A series of Toyota Prius Hybrids sit on the Sacramento garage in September 2009. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee.

The Bee reported last week that about 25 percent of the 54,000 or so state wireless lines audited so far were unused in December at a cost to government of more than $300,000.

The state Office of Technology has been looking at the issue for more than a year, long before Gov. Jerry Brown said he wanted departments to cut their phone inventories by 50 percent. The results, according to Validas, a Texas-based a mobility service advising firm, was $2.6 million saved from using wireless devices more efficiently and negotiating lower-priced rates.

Here's the Validas report:
State of California Wireless Savings Report: January 27, 2011

The Legislature should consider cutting state workers' pay, according to a new, grim review of what Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan means for California's civil servants.

The Legislative Analyst's Office notes that Brown says departments won't make about one-third of the cuts required in the 2010-11 general fund budget. Furthermore, the LAO says, Brown's budget plan for 2011-12 contains several suspect assumptions about employee cost savings.

Let's hit this point by point:

Today's online Q&A (click here for the replay) included many questions about the future of furloughs under Gov. Jerry Brown. It's a huge issue: About a third of unionized state employees in six bargaining units are still taking a three-day-per-month furlough hit to their pay.

Many state employees hoped that Brown would immediately end the policy-- which his election campaign criticized -- once he became governor.

The budget that Brown offered on Monday, however, assumes the policy will continue. Here are two key paragraphs from the employee compensation and retirement summary, which you can download by clicking here. We've underlined the sentence that touches on furloughs:

The Bee's Jim Sanders is reporting that Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered half the state's 96,000 cell phones turned in by June 1. Click here for more about it on our sister blog, Capitol Alert.

Here's our morning round up of news and views of interest to State Worker blog users.

Brown's Countdown, Day 2: Governor looking for three-sided trick shot on budget
Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a delicate trick shot Monday to balance California's budget: Persuade Democrats to slash social services, ask Republicans to place taxes on the ballot, then persuade voters to pay additional money for five more years.

State workers unhappy with Brown's budget plan (video above)
A lot of people are upset about Gov. Jerry Brown's plans to cut spending and raise revenue, especially tens of thousands of state workers.

State of the unions
The Great Depression invigorated the modern American labor movement. The Great Recession has crippled it.

We noted earlier today that Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan allows for a $395 million "augmentation" for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The money would go to pay correctional officers' salaries, inmate medical transportation costs and a few other things.

But does that mean Brown is assuming a contract with full hours and pay for correctional officers? Is the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, one of six unions without a contract, going to escape a pay cut?

The Bee's Jack Chang reports on Gov. Jerry Brown's quick visit to the hot dog tent at the "Peoples' Inauguration Party" at the Capitol in this post on our sister blog Capitol Alert. Chang reports that the crowd was disappointed that Brown didn't make a few remarks.

The comments on the post speculate on what that means: nothing or an indication of more disappointments to come.

There's also video (from which we captured a screen shot, right) with lots of talk about mustard.

PHOTO: Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Anne Gust (left), eat hot dogs at the "Peoples' Inauguration Party" at Capitol Park. From video footage. Jack Chang / Sacramento Bee.

Last week at our sister sacbee.com blog, Capitol Alert, Torey Van Oot asked folks to sum up Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's legacy in one word.

More than 1,200 people played along. Today Torey posted the results -- minus profane or vulgar returns -- in a word cloud that sizes submissions by their frequency. Click here to check out "Word Cloud: Schwarzenegger's legacy in one word."

Attorney General Jerry Brown, who becomes governor next month, is continuing a holiday tradition by giving Department of Justice staff four hours of informal time off for the holidays. The department hadn't yet issued a memo about the ITO when we called this afternoon, but Justice spokeswoman Christine Gasparac confirmed that Brown authorized the leave just as he did last year.

Justice has since issued the ITO memo to staff, several DOJ employees have told us.

Brown's decision for DOJ staff adds another four hours to the four hours of informal time off approved for all state workers by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this month. The Dec. 2 gubernatorial order means that most state workers will take a half day off on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve.

Governors for many years have traditionally granted the time off as a little perk to brighten the holidays.

Click here to see the Dec. 2 DPA memo that announces Schwarzenegger's authorization of informal time off.

We've been asking constitutional officers for reaction to new furlough instructions from the Department of Personnel Administration, acting on budget bills that allow the administration to furlough state workers.

The instructions, part of a set of Personal Management Liaison memos issued late Thursday afternoon, say that rank-and-file state employees in unions without contracts will continue furloughs of three days per month in November. That includes folks working for the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, the treasurer, the attorney general, the controller, the superintendent of public instruction and the insurance commissioner.

(The Board of Equalization also is a constitutional agency, but it's among the eight departments and agencies whose employees are exempt from furloughs regardless of contract status.)

As we reported last week, look for the Department of Personnel Administration to issue details on state employee compensation changes that the Legislature passed in budget bills earlier this month.

And then look for a new round of union lawsuits to follow.

With all of the historic events of the last two weeks -- action on the state budget, the SEIU labor deal and the California Supreme Court decision on furloughs -- we almost forgot about another high-profile issue that's not yet resolved: state worker minimum-wage litigation.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette has scheduled Endsley v. Chiang for oral argument on Jan. 7. If Marlette's past decisions on furloughs and minimum wage are a guide, he'll issue a tentative decision ahead of the January hearing and then, unless an argument changes his mind, he'll quickly issue a final decision.

Between now and then, there's a Nov. 29 "evidentiary proceeding" during which witnesses will testify, possibly for an entire week. Each side will then submit more documents to Marlette, which he'll consider in the days leading up to oral arguments.

Two unions have responded to the news we broke in this blog post Tuesday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to extend three-day-per-month furloughs for state workers in bargaining units without contracts. Furloughs for those employees will start in November and run through June 30, 2011.

The California Association of Professional Scientists sent this memo to its 2,700 or so members this morning.

The key paragraph:

Two union sources have told The State Worker that, as we reported earlier today, the Schwarzenegger administration has told labor leaders that furloughs will continue for bargaining units without contracts through June 30, 2011.

The administration informed the unions this afternoon. It doesn't know yet whether the policy will be formalized via executive order or some other means, one union source told us, and it's not clear when the formal announcement will be made.

The 2010-11 budget contains language that allows the governor to use "reductions in employee compensation achieved through the collective bargaining process or through existing administrative actions for represented employees and a proportionate reduction for nonrepresented employees (utilizing existing authority of the administration to adjust compensation for nonrepresented employees) in the total amounts of $896,000,000 from General Fund items and $661,000,000 from items relating to other funds."

The words, "existing administrative actions," is legislative code for furloughs for unionized workers in BUs that don't have a contract.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's press office has issued a press release about the tentative agreement reached with SEIU Local 1000 last night. It contains this quote from the governor:

"This agreement continues our progress toward critically needed pension reform and, along with the previously reached union agreements, will help address the state's soaring retirement costs. Unfunded retirement benefits for government employees are a huge problem because, as these costs rise, the state has less and less money for the programs that Californians depend on.

"Not only will this agreement address long-term unsustainable costs, it also brings necessary relief to California's taxpayers in the current budget with additional savings in employee pay. I commend SEIU for being a part of the solution to these problems."

The release doesn't contain any unreported details. Click here to read it.

Wednesday's California Supreme Court hearing is dead ahead, set for Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. and scheduled to run for 90 minutes. Here's a previous post with details about how you can watch the oral arguments in Professional Engineers in California Government v. Schwarzenegger on TV or the Internet.

It's been a long road to this key moment. Looking back at the 1,900 posts on this blog since it started a little over two years ago, references to the state Supreme Court taking and furloughs case go back to early 2009. We're talking about 60 items on The State Worker.

We'll be attending the hearing. Between now and then, we'll be looking through past stories and court filings leading up to the case and writing a bit for tomorrow's Bee. If you want to do the same, here are some links. Many of the blog posts link to court filings or other pertinent info:

Wednesday's order to resume furloughs next month essentially doubled-down Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bet that he has the authority to impose unpaid days off on state workers. It's also a high-stakes gamble that the policy will wring concessions from state labor unions and squeeze the Legislature, now seven weeks late on passing a budget, to craft a deal that includes significant reductions to employee pensions.

Will it work?

As we've just reported, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued a new executive order that requires state employees take three furlough days per month until lawmakers enact a 2010-11 budget.

The order exempts the following departments:

California Highway Patrol
California Department of Fire and Forestry Protection (CalFIRE)
Franchise Tax Board
Board of Equalization
Employment Development Department
State Compensation Insurance Fund
California Housing Finance Authority
California Earthquake Authority

It also excludes Bargaining Units 12, 16, 18 and 19, which along with unions representing CHP officers and state firefighters, recently reached tentative agreements with Schwarzenegger.

Click here to read the executive order.

VIDEO CREDIT: Dino Gomez, a California state worker with the Department of General Services, reacts to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order to start three days of furloughs a month starting Sunday. Video by Hector Amezcua/ hamezcua@sacee.com

In the last two days, we've received roughly 50 e-mails like these:

Governor extended furlough to the end of the year? Look at the video link below.

http://www.kcra.com/video/22933370/index.html

Jon! Big news! http://www.kcra.com/video/22933370/index.html

The now-viral video records Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's remarks about furloughs is from March. Here's The State Worker report, which includes an audio download of those same comments.

After meeting with state officials on Wednesday and Thursday, California Association of Professional Scientists has made a "conceptual" contract proposal to the Schwarzenegger administration for a five-year deal starting July 1 that includes the following provisions for Bargaining Unit 10 employees:

• Two furlough days per month through June 30, 2011.
• After that, annual 5 percent raises.
• A hard hiring freeze for all Unit 10 positions paid from the general fund.
• Employee pension contribution increases or decreases based on changes in the employer contributions.
• Accepts the statutory changes that eliminated Lincoln's Birthday and Columbus Day as paid days off.
• Restores time-and-a-half for working "certain state holidays identified by DPA."
• Agrees to change that eliminated leave time as counting toward the threshold for overtime pay.

The proposal also includes an agreement not to oppose legislation rolling back pension benefits for Unit 10 employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2011, or "legislation sponsored by DPA that requires additional reporting by CalPERS regarding its actuarial determinations."

As we reported in this post, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg blasted the Schwarzenegger administration Thursday for using labor talks to negotiate "issues unrelated to the terms of employment," such as pension legislation. The administration brushed aside Steinberg's comment as an attempt to dodge pension changes.

The CAPS proposal comes three months after the union told members that the administration had offered an "all take and no give" initial proposal.

Click here to read CAPS' counterproposal.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg on Thursday fired off a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and cc'd employee union leaders -- blasting the administration for tying labor talks to politics. Here's an excerpt from Steinberg's 2-page letter:

We called the governor's office for a response.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said that the administration is bargaining in good faith with unions while also talking to the Legislature about state employee compensation as part of the larger budget picture.

"We understand that pension reform isn't Senator Steinberg's or the unions' favorite issue, but it's a critical issue for us all to address," McLear said.

Click here to read Steinberg's letter to Schwarzenegger.

PHOTO: Darrell Steinberg, Nov. 13, 2009 / Michael Allen Jones, Sacramento Bee

By Torey Van Oot

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as expected, vetoed legislation tonight that would have exempted some state workers from furloughs.

Senate Bill X8 29, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would have exempted from the furloughs any state employees in jobs funded with 5 percent or less general fund cash.

In his veto message, Schwarzenegger said the measure would "undermine necessary actions taken to achieve budgetary and cash solutions" and "limit the ability of future governors to implement furloughs during a fiscal emergency."

Steinberg issued this statement shortly after the announcement:

"The governor has lost an opportunity to create private sector jobs, reduce the state's budget deficit, and stimulate California's economic recovery. Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature came together and approved this measure with large bipartisan majorities because the state's furlough policy has failed and is hurting California and our people. It's time to set pride aside, stop spending taxpayer money on losing lawsuits, and start making decisions in the best interest of Californians."

Click here to read the veto message.

Click here to read Alameda Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch's "Order Granting in Part Motion for Relief From Automatic Stay," which the judge signed today. It's essentially the same as his earlier tentative ruling.

IMAGE: www.yolocourts.ca.gov

We wanted to bring to your attention a couple of significant items on today's calendar:

• Alameda Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch is scheduled to hear arguments this morning whether to lift the automatic stay on his order to end furloughs for tens of thousands of state workers and issue back pay to them. The judge could rule from the bench or hold off on a decision for days or weeks. We'll report any news that comes from the 9 a.m. hearing.

• Today is the deadline for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to act on Senate Bill X8 29, the measure by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg that would exclude from furloughs any state employees in jobs funded 5 percent or less with general fund money.

If the governor doesn't act today, the measure becomes law. But Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear has said the governor will "very likely" veto the measure, which passed with a two-thirds vote in the Senate and an overwhelming 88 percent of Assembly members' approval.

So will Steinberg press for an override vote if Schwarzenegger vetoes his bill?

"Too early to say," said Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost when we asked her that question.

The softest spot in an override effort would be with Senate Republicans, so we also called the upper chamber's GOP Caucus chief of staff, Greg Hurner, to ask what he thought about the likelihood of an override vote. We left a message, but as of 7 p.m. Tuesday night, we hadn't heard back.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attorneys have filed their arguments for why employees in departments and agencies run by constitutional officers are subject to the executive's emergency furlough authority.

As you'll recall, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Treasurer Bill Lockyer, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, Attorney General Jerry Brown and the Board of Equalization did not furlough their employees. Roughly 15,000 employees work under them.

The constitutionals -- except for GOP gubernatorial candidate Poizner -- sued to maintain what they say is a constitutional independence that extends to how they handle staffing. They lost the first round in Sacramento Superior Court and appealed to Sacramento's 3rd District Court.

Click the following link to read the governor's rationale for furloughing constitutional officer employees.

This just in from the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians:

State-employed Psychiatric Technicians filed a lawsuit today against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, claiming his elimination of holidays and holiday pay not only specifically hurts those working in California's round-the-clock facilities, but also breaks a major labor law.

The California Association of Psychiatric Technicians' lawsuit argues Governor Schwarzenegger broke the so-called "Evergreen Law" when he eliminated two state holidays - Lincoln's Birthday and Columbus Day - as well as time-and-a-half pay for other holidays as part of a state budget bill earlier this year.

According to the Evergreen Law (California Government Code Section 3517.8), expired state-employee union contracts remain in effect until either a new contract is agreed upon or the union and state reach impasse. As neither an impasse has been reached nor has a new contract been agreed upon, CAPT argues the governor violated the Evergreen Law as well as its 2006-2008 contract, which includes the two holidays as well as time-and-a-half pay for holiday work.

Read the lawsuit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, by clicking here. Read the CAPT press release by clicking this link.

IMAGE: yolocourts.ca.gov

California Highway Patrol officers and members of other police departments statewide won't be getting any mandatory training on how to interact with citizens who wear the kirpan, the ceremonial dagger carried by people of the Sikh faith.

AB 504 from Assemblyman Warren T. Furutani's, D-South Los Angeles, proposed training for police officers on how to properly recognize and interact with Sikhs carrying kirpans.  

Though the bill enjoyed bipartisan support, Gov. Arnold Schwarznneger vetoed the measure on the weekend. Furutani said in a statement he was disappointed.

"The Sikh community should not live in fear of arrest for carrying the kirpan, which is well recognized and integral part of their religious faith," he said. 

The governor said the measure was "unnecessary" and aimed to force the state's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to create content on the Kirpan.

"It is the policy and practice of the Commission to periodically review and update existing course curricula," Schwarzenegger said in his veto message. "If the Commission determines that training on the kirpan is warranted, it can create a program without this measure."

 Read his entire veto message by clicking here.

In reporting last Sunday's story on the Columbus Day controversy, we found out that the Schwarzenegger administration months ago formally withdrew support from the SEIU Local 1000 tentative agreement embodied in AB 88.

"... due to the decline in the State's fiscal situation during the past 6 months and the recent passage of the revised budget, the State is unable to support passage of AB 88," wrote Julie Chapman, DPA's Deputy Director of Labor Relations, in an Aug. 24 letter to Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker. "Please contact me at your earliest convenience to discuss reopening negotiations ..."

Click this link to view the entire letter.

The document reminded us of what Walker said during an interview last week, prior our discovery of the Aug. 24 letter.

The State Worker asked her about the contract and whether the union would go back to the bargaining table. After all, Republicans have twice blocked the MOU bill and it seemed almost impossible to us then (and even more so now) that Schwarzenegger would sign the deal should it reach his desk.

Walker's response: "There's a fundamental principle in negotiations: Your word has to mean something. I can't foresee being able to come to an agreement with this governor when he has already demonstrated his word can't be trusted. He's been weighed and found lacking."

IMAGE: freedigitalphotos.net / Francesco Marino

The group that represents state attorneys, hearing officers and administrative law judges is turning to the courts with a lawsuit against the Schwarzenegger administration over a law passed in February, claiming that eliminating two paid state holidays is illegal and violates their union contract.

The holidays at issue are Lincoln's Birthday (Feb.12)  and Columbus Day, which this year falls on Oct. 12.

The union, CASE -- the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment -- first filed a grievance in August with the Department of Personnel Administration.

In a statement on its Web site, the CASE board of directors says DPA failed to respond and completely ignored the grievance. So late on Thursday, CASE filed a civil complaint in San Francisco Superior Court asking for an injunction to stop the elimination of the paid days off.

CASE said the two holidays are "material, bargained-for contractual rights," and it's vowing to do whatever it must to protect them.

DPA spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley wasn't immediately available to comment -- it's furlough Friday -- but we'll update if she gets back to us.

To read the court case records, click here.

California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment has filed its opening brief to appeal the Sacramento Superior Court ruling that upheld Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furloughs.

Here's the union's introduction to its argument to the Third District Court of Appeal:

In the history of the State of California, no Governor has sought to unilaterally impose furloughs on state employees. Nothing in the statutory framework governing State employer-employee relations authorizes the unilateral implementation of furloughs. Nothing in the MOU between the State and CASE authorizes the unilateral implementation of furloughs. Governor Schwarzenegger, like his predecessors before him, has acknowledged that the Governor lacks the power to unilaterally implement furloughs. Notwithstanding the dearth of authority and the admitted lack of same, Respondent unilaterally implemented furloughs on CASE members. The Executive Order imposing the furloughs cited only a single, inapplicable statute as the basis for the order. The trial court offered alternative bases purporting to authorize furloughs, none of which withstand scrutiny. The ruling of the trial court, if allowed to stand, will allow all future Governors to create "emergencies" justifying an extraordinary power never before thought to exist, which is not contemplated in any statute, regulation, or contract, and which would fundamentally alter the nature of labor relations, and would render collective bargaining and any resulting MOUs meaningless and subject to unilateral rescission at the whim of the Governor. Accordingly, the trial court's ruling must be reversed.

Click here to download the entire 34-page PDF file.

The CASE brief follows one filed Monday by California Association of Professional Scientists and Professional Engineers in California Government seeking to overturn the controversial decision by Judge Patrick Marlette. You can click here to read the previous post on that filing.

Thanks to several readers for alerting us to this latest development in the case.

CalPERS Board of Administration candidates J.J. Jelincic, Inderjit Singh Kallirai and Muriel Strand answered questions about the fund and their candidacy during a 2-hour forum Wednesday night.

Candidates Cathy Hackett, Kurato Shimada, Dan T. Villella and Dennis Yates did not participate.

Questions from the audience of about 50 at Sacramento's Dante Club covered everything from the pension fund's viability and board-to-member communication to whether the fund applies to itself the same good governance principles it pushes for companies in which it invests.

Bee editorial writer Ginger Rutland and columnist Dan Walters asked the candidates about board member ethics, particularly in light of the newspaper's recent report on Charles Valdes and big-bust investments such as the infamous Landsource real estate deal. There was also quite a bit of back-and-forth over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to create a two-tier pension system and whether the fund's support for legislation 10 years ago that boosted pensions -- particularly for safety personnel such as the Highway Patrol officers and correctional officers -- has hurt CalPERS' credibility.

It was a wide-ranging discussion. We'll soon post video of the forum so that voters can view the comments before casting their ballots. Click here for more information about the election.

A word of thanks to Jim McRitchie of PERSWatch for working tirelessly to organize and to promote the forum. Thanks also to The League of Women Voters for moderating the event.

Service Employees International Union Local 1000 has filed its fifth furlough lawsuit, this one in San Francisco Superior Court.

The complaint, which you can read by clicking here, argues from several angles that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furlough order is illegal.

We were struck by how some of the points raised in the lawsuit have been raised by users of this blog. Among the union's arguments:

• Schwarzenegger misused his emergency declaration authority to order the furloughs: "Those powers are used arbitrarily and capricously when they undermine Legislative decision-making about political solutions to budget problems."
• The budget impasse that prompted the emergency order is over, but the furlough order remains in effect.
• The order violates the separation of powers laid out in the state constitution.
• The furlough order violates employment agreements, breaking federal and state constitution provisions "that prohibit the impairment of contracts."
• Furloughs are "wasteful mismanagement of state resources" that "achieve no substantial benefit to the general fund ..."

Local 1000 is seeking coverage of its litigation costs and "such other and further relief as the Court deems appropriate." A hearing date hasn't yet been set.

IMAGE: www.yolocourts.ca.gov

Note at 3:54 p.m.: The link to the DPA Web site has been fixed.

The 5,000 general fund job cuts announced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration in May are still on, despite the budget deal cut Monday night by the governor and leaders of both parties in the Legislature. So are the 2,000 job cuts that the administration announced last week.

What that means is that Sept. 15 is the earliest date that state workers could lose their jobs if they're still in positions targeted for elimination . The state's layoff process requires 120 days of lead time from when a worker is notified of a possible layoff to when the ax actually falls. So workers notified on May 15 have until Sept. 15 to find a new position.

Click here for a chart that lays out how the layoff process works.

DPA tells us that of the 5,000 jobs targeted in May, about 1,100 employees have transferred out of them or left state service. And you'll recall from this blog post that Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services counted 400 vacant spots toward meeting their combined goal of about 1,000 layoffs.

Counting those budgeted-but-vacant slots were considered and exception to the rule at the time, but the administration is now allowing all departments to do the same to reach the 7,000 layoffs of the combined May and July layoff orders.

Departments had until Monday night to tell the administration which jobs they'll cut to get to that 7,000 target (the May 5,000 plus the 2,000 added last week). It will probably take a few more days to verify the list. We'll report the specifics as soon as they become available.

Professional Engineers in California Government has filed a grievance with the Department of Personnel Administration over PML 2009-029, which called for most state workers to take three unpaid days off each month. The union claims that the furlough violates its Memorandum of Understanding.

You can click this link to view PECG Executive Director Bruce Blanning's letter to DPA Labor Relations Officer Jacquelyn Sanders, asking for an expedited response to the grievance. The PDF file also includes the contract grievance filing and the union's grievance statement.

During an impromptu Q&A outside his office this afternoon, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a few remarks we want to pass along about strikes and furloughs:

Q: Governor, what about the IOUs? Have you done anything personally to get the banks to accept them?

A: I think that the IOUs are one more reason to get the budget done as quickly as possible ... The key thing is to have a responsible budget and have a budget that, where we can move forward, and stimulate the economy as quickly as possible, avoid possible strikes and all this. Because the way this is going now, having not had a budget, it is very tough on taxpayers, its' very tough on state employees, it's very tough on everybody ...

Q: Governor, state employees, many of them are hoping that they will get some relief from the current situation of three furlough days and now a possible 5 percent cut in addition to that. They're hoping they'll get some relief out of this (negotiation) process. Is that a reasonable hope?

A: Well, first of all we are talking about three furlough days. Not four, not five or anything like that. You're talking about three furlough days. I think that as soon as our economy comes back and as soon as we see the revenues coming back, then we can go and begin to put them all back to work full time, get everyone paid full time. I think that's the goal here ...

Our thoughts: Clearly, SEIU Local 1000's strike talk is on the governor's radar.

As to the governor's assertion that he has imposed only three furlough days, that is true. But he also asked the Legislature for a 5 percent across-the-board pay cut for state workers. And we know what happened the last time he did that. (Or maybe you don't. If that's the case, click here.)

Thanks to Bee Capitol Bureau colleague Jim Sanders for passing along a recording of the governor's remarks.

CalPERS put out this press release late Thursday, noting that its offices will be closed on "Furlough Fridays." Click here to read the announcement.

New blog users right now are asking, "Why is CalPERS agreeing to the furloughs, since it doesn't get money from the general fund?"

We'll let CEO Anne Stausboll answer, via her March e-mail to fund staff. Click here to read it.

And while we're on the topic of furloughs, AFSCME 2620 President Nancy Swindell slammed a potential 20 percent cut to state services as "unfathomable" and "repugnant" in this press release.

Note: The governor hasn't yet proposed a fourth furlough day. He has proposed an across-the-board 5 percent pay cut on top of the three furlough days a month that started today. Yesterday's State Worker column lays out how the governor could order a fourth furlough day if lawmakers don't agree to the pay cut. Click here to read it.

Digg Dialogg, an online site where users submit and vote on questions for public figures, is taking submissions for a Q&A with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger next week.

The event has become a rallying point for SEIU Local 1000, which sent out a call for members: "Lets bombard the governor with our questions."

Click here to see the Digg Dialogg site. And click this link Click this link to see the union's message to members.

With the state facing a growing budget deficit -- even if the measures on Tuesday's ballot make a remarkable comeback and win -- the Schwarzenegger administration once again is looking at state workers for cuts.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said as much this morning at a budget roundtable in San Jose.

"We are also very seriously looking at cutting our workforce," he said.

The administration on Monday said the budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is likely to be $15.4 billion if the measures pass, $21.3 billion if they don't.

The California Citizens Compensation Commission will meet in Burbank on May 20, the day after the special election, to take a second run at cutting salaries for elected state officials by 10 percent.

It will be the second meeting for the commission this year. In late April, commission members voted 3-1 in favor of the 10 percent pay cut.

But the cut couldn't take effect because the seven-member panel needed four votes to pass the motion, and the Schwarzenegger administration hadn't filled three board vacancies.

The governor has since filled those vacancies with people he said support the pay cuts, and it now looks like a done deal.

The state constitution requires the commission to meet by June 30 of each year.

Officials whose salaries would be targeted by the cuts include all legislators as well as the governor, treasurer, controller, attorney general, insurance commissioner, and elected members of the Board of Equalization. Any cuts approved won't take effect until the end of 2010 after the statewide election.

To see who earns what these days in California, click here.

For details about the meeting, click here and visit the Department of Personnel Administration's Web site.

If you want to testify and add your 2 cents to the debate, you have to call beforehand, and limit your testimony to between five and seven minutes.

The California Association of Psychiatric Technicians filed an unfair labor practice charge today against DPA over changes to overtime pay calculations and holiday compensation policy contained in the recent budget bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The union explains its position in this e-mail to members:

Our 2006-2008 CAPT contract - which by law is still fully in place as we negotiate a new one - includes language that lets us count leave time toward overtime, and also pays us time-and-a-half for holiday work. The budget bill includes language deleting these rights.

Legislators were responsible for including this language in February's late-night budget bill. But because Governor Schwarzenegger signed the bill that contains these changes - and didn't use his line-item veto power to cut them -- and because these changes were not done through our legally protected bargaining process, CAPT says he is ultimately responsible for these illegal actions.

You can read the PERB filing by clicking here.

The phone calls and e-mails are mounting since Judge Patrick Marlette this morning upheld Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furlough order. Our Cap Bureau colleagues, Kevin Yamamura and Andrew McIntosh, are working with us to keep you updated. Go here for our evolving online furlough story at sacbee.com.

Some quick-hit news:

SEIU just filed a new unfair labor practice charge, which you can read by clicking here..

Here's the press release reaction to today's court action from state Controller John Chiang.

Here's the governor's statement about the furlough ruling.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got a question at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon Wednesday about his recent proposal to consolidate state information technology divisions: Would it result in layoffs?

Schwarzenegger didn't answer directly, but he did make clear that budget savings is his goal.

The governor wants to save the state $1.5 billion by integrating four agencies -- the Office of the State Chief Information Officer, the Office of Information Security and Privacy Protection, the Department of Technology Services and the telecommunications division of the Department of General Services.

He said the effort will bring under "one roof" IT services for 130-some state agencies and other entities. 

"What we will do is we will make government run more efficiently, which we owe to the taxpayers," he said. 

The governor's plan will go to the state's Little Hoover Commission for review. The commission will have 60 days to submit recommendations on the idea to the Legislature.

You can watch Finance Director Mike Genest talk about the proposed 09-10 budget by clicking here.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to propose legislation that will make cuts to state worker pay and benefits, including:

• Elimination of Lincoln's Birthday and Columbus Day as paid state holidays.
• One-day-a-month unpaid furloughs for state workers for the next 17 months,
• Elimination of the ability to count leave time when calculating overtime.
• Giving state agencies the ability to schedule workers to 4-day, 10-hour weeks.

Follow the story here.

And tell us what you think.

Capitol Bureau reporter Peter Hecht in today breaks down new poll numbers that show,

Californians are thoroughly fed up with the state of affairs of the Golden State ... Yet by an overwhelming margin, voters don't believe (Gov. Arnold) Schwarzenegger should be recalled from office.

You can read Hecht's story by clicking here.

Looking inside the Field Poll numbers, nearly 60 percent of union members surveyed disapprove of Schwarzenegger's performance. About 50 percent of those who said they weren't part of a union gave the governor a thumbs down.

When asked if a recall election would be good or bad for California, a little over three quarters of union and non-union respondents said it's a bad idea.

The Field survey didn't tease out state worker responses. What would you have said if asked:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Arnold Schwarzenegger is handling his job as Governor of California?

Some groups are trying to organize an effort to gather signatures to hold a special statewide election to ask voters whether or not they want to remove Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from office. Generally speaking, do you think holding a recall election of Governor Schwarzenegger would be a good thing or bad thing for California?

You can read the latest Field Poll and others going back more than a year by visiting our companion Web site, Capitol Alert.

Image: sacbee.com

CCPOA's move to recall Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first topic discussed during the 8 a.m. hour of the Armstrong & Getty radio show this morning with Joe Getty and fill-in co-host Gary Dietrich. A few of their observations:

Dietrich (sarcastic): We need a few more elections in California, don't you think?

Dietrich: Do they (CCPOA) have the bucks to quality the thing? ... Yeah. Can they pass it? Much tougher nut to crack.

Getty: I don't think most people are blaming (Arnold) for the current impasse.

Getty: (CCPOA president) Mike Jiminez ... he's got about six people running against him as he seeks reelection. They're angry about the political spending and actions of the union. A lot of their membership are. We'll see how that election goes.

Getty: I have said ... Fellas, hubris will bring you down. You're overreaching.

Click here to hear the entire segment. Go to the Armstrong & Getty Show 9-10-08 8 a.m. item and click "Listen." The CCPOA recall discussion starts at about 3 minutes and 50 seconds in and runs five minutes.