The County of Ventura Board of Supervisors voted on August 5, 2014, to approve 59 new positions to help keep children safe in the County. The new additions, which include 30 new social workers, are the result of SEIU 721 Local members and staff working tirelessly with the County of Ventura through the joint Workload Forum to find better ways to lessen the impact of child abuse and neglect in our community.
A Ventura County Superior Court judge, Kent Kellegrew, issued a final ruling to take the pension-killing measure off the November ballot. The judge ruled that if the measure was against state law and if it was allowed to stay on the ballot it would result in a waste of taxpayer money because it could not be legally enacted.
The County of Ventura received and filed a report from Segal Corporation which details some of the ways that the ballot measure would cost the County money if things were to occur as they did in San Jose and Alaska.
The SEIU Local 721 City of Ventura bargaining committee reached a tentative agreement with the City on July 9, and all four bargaining units, A, G, S, and Q have approved the tentative agreement. The City Council voted to approve the contract at its July 28 meeting.
SEIU 721 City of Santa Paula members voted to approve the Last, Best and Final Offer on July 8, 2014.
SEIU 721 Gold Coast Transit members voted strongly to approve the Tentative Agreement with Gold Coast Transit. The bargaining team had been bargaining since January of 2014.
The SEIU Local 721 Santa Barbara County bargaining team held a meet and confer with County negotiators on July 9, 2014. They reviewed pay inequities for two job series, Social Workers and Career Employment Specialists. We were able to meet on this because of the language we won in our last reopener.
The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on June 17 to put the pension-killing initiative on the November ballot, after County Counsel, Leroy Smith found the initiative to be illegal.
As part of Reopener discussions provided for in our current contract with the County, your SEIU 721 Bargaining Committee met with County representatives on June 10, 2014.
I went to work for the Ventura County court system in 1970. I planned to work for 25 years, thinking I could eventually have a good retirement.