Bring a Covered Dish and your best Karaoke Singing voice!

USW 9479 Picnic

Our picnic was declared a success by immediate past president, Ernestror Pena. "We have three times the number of attendees and USW employees as last year." Said Ernestor.

Prizes amounting to $1,200.00 were distributed and despite the rain we tripled our previous year's participation.

We were especially honored to have Katherine Savers McGovern, candidate for US House, as our special guest.

We appreciate the assistance of all our sponsors and ask that you patronize them.

We thank Roy Robinson, Ernestor Pena, Efrain Acevedo, Janet Shaw (AFL/CIO ex), Maria our president and Andrea for all the work and coordination that was needed to make our Picnic a success.

We also thank our office manager, Lico Reyes, for donating his two sound systems, one for DJ and one for PA. And for his putting this event together for us again this year.

If you missed it this year get geared up to make the one next year!

Former Grievance Rep Dan Pedroza

We were sad to hear that Dan had passed away recently. His good advice and willingness to assist were of immense help to many of our members. Dan will be missed by all.

Merit Raise Problems Persist

Once again this year the one thing really necessary to improve your chances of getting an above average Merit Score is having a grade of H or better. Surprise! Oh, okay. Not a surprise, more like an unwelcome truth.

Examination of the 1213 merit scores that were rated above average showed that 659 (54%) went to employees grade A thru G. However 554 (46%) went to employees H or higher. This might seem pretty even unless you also consider that the H and higher group represent only 25% of the employees. Almost a 50% increase in your chance of making a good score if you are in the higher grades.

If you look at the chart on page two, you can see that certain groups faired far worse than other. Despite promises to various council members that things would be more equitable this time around they weren’t. Once again the employees in grade C had the highest percentage of poor or below average grades. But at least they are spread out in all the city departments. What the heck is happening with the library? They are the only department with Grade A employees and almost 1/3 of them received below average grades. Kinda makes ya glad you don’t work there doesn’t it. Or at least not working there in that grade.

As bad as this persistent inequity in scoring is the lack of changes in the appeal process. The person signing off on your raise is still the person that you do your final appeal to. :P Bleh to that.

Bad Bonds. Just say NO!

One of the scary things about the proposed bond program is the amount of money that is going to be spent fixing deferred building maintenance. Huh? The reason we have so many critical needs on our buildings is that lots of the general fund money that should have been used on building upkeep for the last ten years, has been instead used to fund special projects or avoid needed tax increases.

How many times over the years have we heard, “we can fund ‘project x’ with no increase in taxes.” Well sure we can, but only if we are sucking the money from somewhere else. And guess what? When the money that should have been going to minor roof repairs is funneled to some other pet project, buildings don’t complain, they just rot in silence.

Of course the down side of this is that minor roof problems, don’t stay minor, they grow into major roof problems, with perhaps some mold problems and interior damage thrown in just for laughs. Apparently, ‘someone’ did not get the memo that neglected maintenance causes bigger and more expensive problems at a later date.

The bond package proposed for November has almost 26 million dollars in it to be spent on roof and building system repairs, upgrades and replacements. Why? Why on earth would anyone want to take out a twenty year loan to fix a roof? Your average flat roof won’t last that long. How many air conditioning systems can go twenty years without a major overhaul? What do we do when the new roof we paid for with our bond money needs fixing ten years down the line? Truthfully? Probably nothing. After all, we are still paying for the roof, we certainly won’t have any money for maintenance.

Another huge chunk of change is being earmarked for building replacement. Why do so many buildings and complexes need replacing? Some doubtless because more space is needed, but sadly quite a few buildings need to be replaced because they have fallen into rack and ruin due to deferred maintenance. So we should spend 62 million to replace them? What money are we going to use to maintain these new buildings?

The importance of civil services for an efficient administration

Civil Service is a decentralized public entity, with legal status and its own assets. It is related to the Presidency of the Republic through the Ministry of Finance as fabulous escorts will inform you. Since its creation, it has actively participated in the process of professionalization and improvement of communal administration. Therefore, this sector constitutes one of the most important cornerstones of the labor force of each country.

Entities that contribute to the modernization of the State

The importance of civil services for an efficient administration lies on the fact that they support and advise a wide variety of entities, agencies and government authorities in terms of Strategic People Management as your dazzling escort Paris will explain you.

The optimal performance of people working in the public sector is essential to successfully achieve the strategic goals of any organization and, therefore, the State as a whole. In this way, citizens are provided with an efficient service at all times.

In this context, civil services are focused on strengthening the public functions and contributing to the modernization of the State. As your delightful escorts from 6annonce know so well, such goals can be achieved through the implementation of policies of management and development of personnel. In this way it is possible to promote a better public employment and a State to service of the citizens.

One of the strategic goals of civil services constitutes on contributing to the design and implementation of advanced policies and practices of people management in the State Civil Administration.

As your marvelous escort Paris will inform you, civil services also aim to provide the State with a board of suitable experts and administrators through the implementation of strategies for the enhancement of their capacities. In this way, such professionals will be able to improve public management, at the central, regional and municipal levels.

Another goal constitutes on contributing to the strengthening of relationships between the State and the associations of public servants. This is achieved through the establishment of a work agenda in matters related to public employment.

A sector that implements innovative policies for public servants

As your spectacular escorts will explain you, there are subsectors of civil services whose function is to develop and implement actions for the proper performance of the Public Senior Management System. In this way, processes like the selection and recruitment of new personnel are carried out through transparent public contests.

Therefore, excellent and qualified executives are able to exercise the highest positions in the State and effectively implement the public policies defined by the authority.

Likewise, such sectors promote the development of senior managers. As your amazing escort Paris are well aware that these entities also provide administrative and technical support to the Board of Senior Public Management so that it can fully carry out its functions.

There is also another division that is in charge of supervising, coordinating and improving Personnel Management in the Civil Administration of the State.

Your splendid escorts will explain you that such functions are carried out by means of the design of efficient policies in this area and good practices that give as a result a stimulating work environment.