President, William Abernathie
Chief of Labor Relations, M. Eagleson
Senior Field Representative, Nancy Tate
Senior Field Representative, Mary Blanco

December 2007

How to appeal a Letter of Reprimand

           Last month I explained how to appeal a letter of reprimand if you are in the Sheriff’s Department. This month I will go over the process for the Probation Department.

           The Probation’s Department Administrative Appeal procedure states that an employee has thirty (30) calendar days of receipt of the Letter of Reprimand to file an appeal. The Probation Department has a form titled “Administrative Appeal of Punitive Action” that must be completed and turned into the Division Director II of Personnel and Training.

           Hearing Officers are assigned by the Deputy Chief of Administrative Services. The hearing is selected outside the employee’s immediate chain of command. The hearing officer shall coordinate the date, time and place of the appeal and may request the participation of the Department of Human Resources Officer and/or the Director II of Personnel and Training. The hearing will be scheduled within 15 working days of the receipt of the appeal.

           You are entitled to a representative at this hearing. Usually your representative would have filed the appeal for you. At this hearing you and your representative can present facts and evidence supporting why you believe the reprimand was too severe or unwarranted and attempt to convince the Department to reverse its decision.

           The hearing officer has 15 working days to make a decision. That decision is final. There are no other appeal procedures or processes for a Letter of Reprimand.

           If the Letter of Reprimand is sustained, you have 30 days from that decision to submit a rebuttal if you choose to do so.

           As of this writing the Welfare Fraud Division is currently in the process of writing a policy. I’ll keep you informed of what that is when I receive a copy of it.

           The District Attorney Investigators are in the process of fine tuning their policy. It currently states:

In compliance with Government Code section 3304, sworn employees who receive a written reprimand may, in writing, request an administrative appeal to the appointing authority within 10 County business days of receiving the reprimand. The appointing authority shall review the written points in the request and/or meet with the employee and consider the employee and supervisor arguments and merits for and against the issue(s) addressed in the reprimand and issue a decision to either sustain, modify or rescind the written reprimand. Within 20 County business days of the latter of the receipt of the written request or the meeting with the employee, the appointing authority’s final decision shall be communicated to the employee.

           I will inform you once the DA’s office has completed their fine tuning. If you have any questions on any of these policies please call your SEBA field representative.

           In the upcoming months I will be outlining the policies for the other Departments SEBA represents.

           If you have any questions, contact your Field Representative.

           On September 11, 2007 the Board of Supervisors approved the reclassification of Probation Corrections Officers-transitional to Probation Corrections Officers. With this change came a salary range increase. PCO transitional went from salary range 35X to salary range 46X. This will amount to a 5% or better increase in salary. This change will go into effect September 1, 2007. They will not have to serve a probationary period if they were not on probation prior to the change. This change was made due to the inequities that the current system caused.

           

           

President, William Abernathie
Chief of Labor Relations, M. Eagleson
Senior Field Representative, Nancy Tate
Senior Field Representative, Mary Blanco