REDDING - On Wednesday, April 14th, local news announced that the Northern California Veterans Clinic had run out of coffee for the veterans who use their services. The federal government does not provide coffee to our veterans in Redding. Business Manager Chris Darker and the staff at UPEC quickly put together some coffee and creamer and then decided to send out All Points Bulletin to other Area Unions. Darker, his son Senior Airman John Darker (in uniform), 5 Counties Central Labor Council President Dwight Evans took a load of coffee, sugar and creamer to the clinic by early Thursday afternoon on behalf of area organized labor. Teamsters Local 137 also participated.
The Redding community responded with well over 50 pounds of coffee for our veterans.
OROVILLE - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Michael P.Candela to a judgeship in the Butte County Superior Court. Candela, 50, of Chico, has been a Deputy District Attorney for the Butte County District Attorney’s Office since 1997. Previously, he volunteered as a research attorney for the San Joaquin County Public Defender’s Office in 1996 until he was appointed and served as a deputy public defender in 1997. Candela was an associate for Drath, Clifford, Murphy, Wennerholm and Hagen in 1995 and for Gagen, McCoy, McMahon and Armstrong from 1991 to 1995. He was a sole practitioner from 1990 to 1991 and a Deputy District Attorney for the Marin County District Attorney’s Office from 1988 to 1990. Prior to that, Candela served the Butte County District Attorney’s Office as a Deputy District Attorney in 1988 and the San Francisco County Superior Court as a research attorney from 1987 to 1988. He earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Chico. Candela fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Thomas W. Kelly. That’s the official Press Release from the Governor’s Office.
With respect to UPEC membership, staff would like to recognize Mike for the key role he played in organizing the Butte County Professional Association membership into an effective UPEC affiliate. Mike served several years as Association President, Board member and bargaining team member. He lead very difficult negotiations that paved the way for a UPEC contract that set a standard for bringing salaries to regional parity. His counsel and advice as we continue to deal with a Butte County budget shortfall in these difficult economic times will be sorely missed.
There is no question that the leadership skills Mike displayed as a Union activist are the same set of skills that gained him recognition to be appointed to this judgeship.
Misc. Peace Officer’s Unit Endorse Dave Cox for Sheriff in Trinity County
On April 15, 2010 the Trinity County Miscellaneous Peace Officer’s Association voted to endorse Dave Cox as their candidate of choice for the Office of the Sheriff in Trinity County. Hal Ridelhuber, President of the Association, wrote that the member’s “believe that Dave is the most qualified and suited candidate for the Office of Sheriff”. Dave has been a member of Local 792 for several years serving as a Sergeant for the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department and he is currently assigned as the Chief Investigator for the Trinity County District Attorney’s Office. Dave has been in law enforcement in Trinity County since 1985 and he holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts and he is a 2002 graduate of the F.B.I. National Academy.
Dave has been an active and hard working member of the Trinity County Miscellaneous Peace Officer’s Association always supporting the membership and the law enforcement community in general.
Dave Cox also has the support and public endorsement of the current Sheriff, Lorrac Craig.
First in a series of recognition ads for our members. For information on featuring your department contact UPEC Union Relations Representative Christine Perry at 530-949-4055.
This ad will be aired on KRCR Channel 7 beginning May 10, 2010.
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An employee for the Lassen County Child Support Department was terminated from her employment in August 2009. The Union, on behalf of the employee, filed an appeal with the State Personnel Board immediately after the termination.The Union contended that the termination was discriminatory in nature, unnecessarily punitive rather than corrective in nature, and the County failed to adequately consider reasonable alternatives to termination. Dave Ritchie and Mike Lyon attended a Pre-Hearing/Settlement Conference Hearing in Oakland, California with the employee and representatives from Lassen County. Judge Regina J. Brown facilitated the conference in which Mr. Ritchie successfully convinced the County to allow the employee to return to work under a last chance agreement. The employee waived any back pay and agreed to the terms that Mr. Ritchie and County Counsel laid out.
Even though the Union was successful in getting the employee’s job back prior to implementing the agreement a change occurred in the employee’s family life. The employee has now resigned from her employment prior to taking her job back and the County has removed the termination documents from her personnel file. The employee and her family will possibly be moving from the County.
A proposed ballot measure that would limit public employee unions’ ability to collect dues for political purposes has been abandoned because sponsors saw they’d be unable to gather enough petition signatures by the deadline, co-author Mark Bucher of Tustin said today.
The “Citizen Power Initiative” aimed to limit public unions’ influence over lawmakers by making it harder for them to bankroll campaigns. The proposal called for a ban on paycheck deduction of dues used for political purposes.
Backers were hoping the support of Tea Party activists and a wariness of public employee unions would help make it possible to gather most of the required 694,000 signatures with volunteers.
“We had volunteers working their hearts out, but it just wasn’t enough,” Bucher said. Advocates did not raise sufficient money to hire a significant number professional signature gathers.
May 3 was the deadline to file the signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Bucher said he now planned to qualify the measure for the ballot in 2012.
Nick Berardino, general manager of the Orange County Employees Association, said the measures failure to qualify was good news.
“They have tried three times to silence the voice of working people and they’ve failed three times,” he said, noting two similar ballot measures that were rejected by California voters. “Whenever you try to silence the voice of working people, you’ll fail.”
Bucher said he thinks the public pension crisis will continue to grow, and bring more voters support to the effort to limit public unions political influence.
April 8th, 2010, 2:58 pm · 13 Comments · posted by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter
