Local 203
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Local 203 |
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New York State
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Tom Rienzo called the meeting to order at 12:03 pm. Tom welcomed all of the new PEF members who have joined the agency in the past few months.
Bob Laurenzo gave the Treasurer's Report. Our current balance is $4,103. We spent $165 over our budget in the first quarter 2007, and $250 for the second quarter 2007, The use of rebates has increased. We are still OK in terms of spending for the year.
Tom discussed the upcoming elections for Steward positions in our agency. We can have up to 6 stewards. We currently have 4. All PEF members in the Agency should have received a petition at home. Anyone interested in running for steward should get at least 5 signatures, but it was recommended to get more due to inaccuracies in signatures which will be thrown out. Tom told the members that as a steward we represent members to management. We haven't had any grievances in many years. The petitions are due in hand at PEF Headquarters by 5 pm on October 15, 2007. There were no questions from the Albany members on the Steward Elections.
Ron Vero gave a summary of the Convention which was held in NYC for the first time ever. It is very expensive to hold a convention in NYC, so PEF will not be using NYC as a location for future conventions. The next 4 convention locations were voted on at the convention: Niagara Falls, Rochester, Niagara Falls and Washington, D.C. There were approximately 800 delegates at the convention. Governor Spitzer addressed the convention delegates and discussed the contract negotiations in general terms. Regarding the negotiations, Ron said that the teams are meeting weekly, but little substantive progress is being made. The State has not laid out it's demands. The unions, PEF, CSEA and other had agreed to go into negotiations as a coalition.
One of the members raised a concern about several recent fire drills in Agency Building 3. There were mixed messages over the intercom regarding the instructions to employees about evacuating the building (or staying in the building). Paul Eddy who is on the Health and Safety Committee told the membership that this important issue was discussed on 9/26/07 at a H&S Committee meeting. Apparently, a new OGS employee made some mistakes with regard to the fire drills. Bill Reilly will be discussing this with OGS. There may be another drill to test whether the correct procedures are in place and are communicated properly by OGS.
Bob Laurenzo asked the membership to comment on a practice which the agency uses regarding parking permits for P-2 for employees who are hired back after retirement as consultants or as regular employees. Some of these retirees are allowed to keep their parking permits which means those permits are not freed up for use by current employees. While a vote was not taken, it appears from comments, that the membership does not agree with this practice.
There was also a question from the membership to the Council regarding the use of PEF rebates. Tom clarified that rebates can be used for DPS events, which in 2007 so far have included the PSC Golf Open, the Picnic, the Director's Cup, and will include the Holiday Party in December.
Five Scholarships were drawn randomly from 18 submissions for students enrolled in a full-time program of study. The winners are:
aul Eddy made a motion to adjourn the meeting, and it was seconded by Pat Barry, and members voted unanimously to adjourn at 12:40 pm.
If you would like to get involved, please contact any PEF Steward!