PEF Exec. Board OKs best L-M practices package at June meeting
By LINDA RUBIN and SHERRY HALBROOK
At its June meeting in Albany, the PEF Executive Board voted to adopt proposed “Recommendations for Agency Labor-Management Best Practices.”
Board members also approved sending the tentative agreement reached with NYS Canal Corp. to the members of that bargaining unit for ratification.
And a motion carried authorizing PEF to launch a campaign to organize the licensed professional staff of Rensselaer County.
PEF finances
The board voted to take $125,000 from PEF’s reserves to fight state Labor Department plans to close its Telephone Claims Center in Manhattan.
At the March Executive Board meeting, a motion had carried authorizing PEF to pay for board members to have single-occupancy overnight hotel accommodations for board meetings. At that time, Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum stated the authorized funding was not enough to cover the expense.
At the June meeting, Hallum recommended covering that shortfall by taking $64,160 from the amount budgeted for staff salaries and benefits, since anticipated retirements of senior staff would allow vacancies to be filled at lower pay levels. This motion carried.
A motion also carried to allocate $1,500 to each of PEF’s three members attending the AFL-CIO National Convention in July. And the board approved Hallum’s recommendation to reimburse four members whose requests for employee organizational leave for PEF business was denied by the state.
Rules and appeals
The board approved formation of a new PEF division for Region 10 members working at the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
A motion to sustain the PEF Divisions Committee’s decision to put Division 190 into trusteeship carried.
The board also sustained the Divisions Committee’s denial regarding William Reyes of Division 352.
The board adopted a new policy regarding mailing deadlines for appeals that also will be adopted in each set of rules for committees involved in the appeal process.
The amendment to the Special Rules of Order for the 2005 Convention were brought before the Board for the second time and adopted, making them officially part of the Special Rules of Order.
The decision of the Appeals Committee regarding Case 2004-15 — Greene and Hennessy (appellant) vs. Ethics Committee — was overturned by the Executive Board.
Regarding Ethics Case 2005-01 — Kerner (appellant) vs. Ethics Committee — a motion to sustain the Ethics Committee determination to dismiss Mr. Kerner’s charges failed. A motion that the case be postponed indefinitely carried.
Other matters
PEF Region 1 announced the two winners of the Judi Scanlon Scholarship Award, named for the slain Region 1 member. Kirsten L. Stoczynski and Jennifer Walia are the first applicants to ever receive the awards.
PEF Region 8 presented a $400 contribution to Region 1 for the Judi Scanlon Scholarship fund.
And Michael Sicko was sworn in as a board member filling a mid-term vacancy to represent members at the state Department of Correctional Services. |
Four E. Board vacancies filled
Four members have been elected to fill mid-term vacancies on the PEF Executive Board.
As the only certified candidates, the four — Paul Cecilia, Dylan Keenan, Toni-Marie Ciarfella and Robert Montalbano — were elected automatically following the submission of nominating petitions.
They will serve the remainder of the three-year terms which expire July 31, 2006.
Cecilia was elected to Seat 50, representing PEF members at Ossining, Green Haven, Bedford Hills, Arthurkill, Queensboro, Taconic, Bayview, Edgecombe, Lincoln and Fulton state correctional facilities, and state Department of Correctional Services central administrative staff in New York City.
Keenan fills Seat 115, which represents all members in engineering, technician and geologist titles at the state Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany County.
Ciarfella fills Seat 345 representing members at Taconic Developmental Disabilities Services Office (DDSO) and state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities main office staff in PEF Region 9.
And Montalbano fills seat 350, which represents members at Hudson Valley DDSO.
— Sherry Halbrook |
