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President's Message
April 2010
Budget/Negotiation Talks
I am sure you are all aware the County has been experiencing significant financial difficulties due to the downturn in the economy. Things have not improved over the last few months and the original deficit figure of $80 million has grown to $90 million. This increase in the deficit is due in a large part to continued decline in County revenue sources from Sales Tax, Property Tax, Public Safety Sales Tax (Prop. 172), and Realignment Revenues. San Bernardino County is no different than many of the surrounding counties or cities facing similar or in some cases more severe budgetary problems. There does not appear to be any relief in the foreseeable future for the budget concerns to turn around and head into a more positive direction.
What does all of this mean to the working employees of the County? As you recall, most bargaining group members voted to defer pay raises for the 2009-10 fiscal year. There have been no discussions about deferring upcoming pay raises, but I am sure this is something the County would like all groups to consider to help offset the budget deficit. In the two meetings your negotiating team has had with the County, they have shown costs associated with pay raises and other benefits over the course of the 2010-11 fiscal year for each of our five bargaining groups. We have asked the County to come back with some type of figure they believe is needed from our groups to help reduce the deficit and stabilize the budget. I have declined to make any offer to the County without having the appropriate information to formulate a fair and equitable response to their proposal. With that said, as you know the final decision about whether we do or do not assist the County in any way with this budget deficit rests solely on a full membership vote of each of our bargaining groups.
I have scheduled meetings with the new CAO, Greg Devereaux and the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Gary Ovitt on April 5th. I will send out a SEBA FLASH and post what information I can about these two meetings on our website since our magazine will have just gone to print. Our next negotiations meeting is scheduled for April 13th. Again, I will provide an update if there is any new information to provide.
Federal Healthcare Bill
Congressional leaders of our country passed new legislation changing many aspects of how healthcare is administered. There were multiple bills that were passed to come up with the reform they were looking for. More than 2,000 pages were in the final versions and I am not sure if any of them actually read all of the pages associated with the bills. I am not going to go into detail about the legislation, but I have provided a link on our website that will give you a basic summary of some of the more critical components of the bill. Additional analysis is being conducted to determine additional repercussions from the passing of this legislation.
Website Update
At the urging of a SEBA member, I have reviewed our website and found we can do better in providing up-to-date information to the membership via the website. SEBA staff members are in the process of researching new and improved ideas in the formatting of the site which will include additional information about upcoming contract negotiations, member benefits, past SEBA FLASH faxes, and a whole host of other important topics.
We have already made some additions, which include the summary of the healthcare bill, a SEBA FLASH link, and updates on the current status of negotiations regarding the County budget deficit. Stay tuned for more information and visit us at www.seba.biz.
And as always, last but not least, "Stay safe out there."
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