City of Dallas Employees Steelworkers Newsletter April 2005

North Texas Association of Public Employees

Steel Workers Local 9479

Printable PDF Format of entire April 2005 Newsletter

Printable .DOC Format of entire April 2005 Newsletter

Proposition One and how it will affect me and my community

Or “What’s up with that Blackwood Strong Mayor Proposal??”

City employees will be affected in several negative ways if this proposal passes. First, it will gut the civil service system as all Civil Service Board appointments will be nominees of the Mayor. Council has to approve initial appointments, but any Board member can be replaced at the whim of the mayor at any time during their term. Interestingly, their replacement for the remainder of that term does NOT require council approval. This puts the board in the mayor’s pocket.

As we all know, there are very few other protections afforded to municipal employees by law, so just this one change will have a chilling affect on how the city is run.

The second big problem would be the Mayor’s new power to create and disband departments not specifically mentioned in the charter. This would mean that new departments could be created that are NOT civil service. It would then be an easy thing to channel all work to those departments, until the civil service departments became a mere shells with a only a few employees. That would fulfill the Mayor’s pledge to get rid of the Civil Service Department.

Think it couldn’t happen? Ask the people in purchasing who had it sprung on them several years ago, or employees of Developmental Services which was created about three years ago. They were transferred in and then sent a memo telling them they were no longer civil service. We were able to have that decision reversed, but it was a close call and required council help to over turn. Council could not help if Prop 1 passes.

Dallas Citizens are being told that the Council/Manager system is old-fashioned and not suited for moving Dallas into the future. How so? It totally mirrors standard business practices of a major corporation. CEO/Mayor, Board of Directors/Council, Chief Financial Officer/City Manager. You want to talk old fashioned? Let us talk about the Blackwood/Prop 1 proposal. This form of government pre-dates the early 1900’s. Talk about being old fashioned and behind the times.

The Strong Mayor form of government has a history of being rife with corruption, the payola system decided which laws got passed and who got services. Sure decisions were made faster, but they were being made in back rooms, benefiting only a few and often at the expense of the public purse. Do we really want to pay that price to speed up the decision making in Dallas ?

Check out the cities being held up as shining examples of Strong Mayor progress. Look at the problems in Atlanta , Chicago and Detroit ; special interests, partisan politics and questionable awarding of contracts are just the tip of the ice berg. All of those cities are currently undergoing Strong Mayor related legal woes of some sort. Couple this with the fact that the minute the Strong Mayor Prop 1 proposal passes; Dallas will immediately be dragged into several lengthy court battles. These will prove to be quite costly in terms of both tax dollars expended and our reputation in the business community. We need to VOTE NO on Prop 1. It’s a bad deal for Dallas .

You want to comment on this - Click here

Tax Revenues Increase

But So Do Fixed Costs

We got us another good news, bad news situation this year. Yes there has been an increase in the tax revenue the city receives; it is currently up by 3.41%. The bad news? The money people are already starting to complain about how much more it is going to cost the city to fund what they are already committed to.

NO? REALLY? Gosh, thank heavens we civilian employees don’t have problems like that. Oh. Wait. We do have problems like that. My bad. Let us face the facts here. The city is not the only one facing a budget pinch. The only difference is that the city has been able to reduce their expenses over the last several years by piling them on our backs. While we were of course glad to get any raise/merit increases after years of nothing, there is no getting around the fact that they did not even cover the increases in health coverage that many of us had to pay.

People, the minute this Prop 1 distraction is over we need to start lobbying for some consideration of our needs for a change. We have all had our expenses go up and have not received a fraction of the money necessary to maintain even the pay rate we had in 2000. Also this year we have the increase in our pension contribution to contend with.

One small bright spot. It may finally be sinking in that Dallas ’ ability to hire new employees has been hampered over the past few years by the miserly pay and benefit packages we have been receiving. Or not receiving. With the job market tightening up, Dallas will soon need to do something to make it attractive to new hires. We have the potential for a lot of upcoming vacancies, both from employees disgusted with our treatment over the last few years who have realized that they would have received more raises as retirees, and by new employees jumping ship before they have wasted too much time working somewhere that does not appreciate their labor. – M. R, Frey

Where does a 500lb Mayor sit?

Okay, so the phrase is supposed to be gorilla, not mayor, but the joke is still the same. Apparently Mayor Miller feels that like a 500lb gorilla, she can sit anywhere she wants, even if it is a closed hearing room. This is exactly what Mayor Miller and her security guard recently did.

Mayor Miller decided to sit in on a termination hearing. These hearing are closed to anyone not directly involved with the case. She sat down for a while, listening, frowning and then left before the conclusion of the questioning. Which was good as a request for her eviction was ready to be presented to the judge as soon as it could be made with out interrupting the procedures. But she did not leave soon enough to avoid the attention of a reporter who was called to the scene by one of our employee reps.

A reporter showed up, but was not allowed into the hearing because…everyone sing along, “they are closed hearings.” Weird huh. Fortunately for the city, the employee got their job back; otherwise Ms. Miller’s interference could have left the city on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

It has been pointed out that Political skills do not equate to management skills, and that the Mayor does not have any management experience. This is troubling when this same Mayor backs a plan that would give her and all future mayors power over every important aspect of employee management. Management is, in and of itself, a profession and not something that should be learned on the fly when dealing with thousands of employees.

Barging in to a hearing just because you want to is not a good management practice. Five hundred pound Gorilla’s can sit where ever they want to, but the Mayor is supposed to know better. Dallas employees deserve more consideration that this demonstrates and someone over them that understands the laws governing personnel management.

You want to comment on this - Click here

The Time to Join is Now!

Don’t forget about the 30 day waiting period on certain services for new members. We don’t want anyone to miss out on assistance should they need it. The time to join is now, so you will already be a member before any problem that you need help with occurs.

You want to comment on this - Click here

We’ve Moved

We are now at the Oakwood Tower , Suite 411 at 3626 N. Hall Street , Dallas Texas 75219 . Our phone fax and email have remained the same.

The attached garage has ample casual parking for stopping off during the day to pick up paperwork and is convenient for evening meeting parking. All the attached parking at this location has a clear view of the lobby door. We have numerous maps and directions on our website. http://www.cityofdallasemployees.com/codeMap.htm

    Thank You for your help!

Many thanks to our organizers Roy Robinson, Larry Smith and James Crow for coordinating and handling the lion’s share of our move. Also thanks to our Grievance councilors Scott and Mark for their assistance and loan of vehicles and trailer. We also had several members, officers and their family members assist as well as a member of the Dallas County association pitch in to help. We also wish to extend an extra special thanks to Ernie Timmons who is not a member, but wanted to pitch in just the same.

Not everything is put up and organized the way we want it yet, but it will be soon.

You want to comment on this - Click here

Sympathy

We wish to extend our sincere condolences to Hope Covington on the passing of her Grandmother.

City Retiree in Council Race

Our own Mary Hasan's Husband, Khaleef Hasan, is running for council. As you may know, Khaleef and Mary have both been very active in the community for many years. He is against the current Charter Amendment as it is written.

Khaleef Hasan is running for the District 3 council set. I understand he has been on several boards and commissions like the Southern Dallas Development Corporation, South Dallas Trust Fund and Advisory Committee for Dallas Executive Airport . As a former City Employee, and spouse of another one, I imagine he knows more than most about what is really happening in Dallas . :D

Prop 1 Voter Turnout is Key!

The most important thing to remember is that municipal elections traditionally have a low voter turn out. Granted the turn out in this election will be higher than normal due to Proposition 1 - the Blackwood Strong Mayor Proposal, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot have an effect at the polls. Election watchers state that this contest will be won by the side that can get their supporters to the polls. It doesn’t matter how many people you convince, it only matters how many actual voters you can get there on Election Day.

We have over 7000 civilian employees and their families who will be adversely affected if Prop 1 passes. The most important thing that you can to is to make sure that your friends and families VOTE NO! Voter apathy is not your friend. Take Grandma to the poll and then perhaps out to a nice lunch. Call your Aunt and ask if her church group needs drivers to get people to the voting stations.

Even employees who are not citizens can help. There are plenty of organizations who can use your help or donations. There are lots of ways to help, but if you can’t think of any off hand you can check out http://www.keepitopen.org they can hook you up with a way to volunteer as a worker bee or just let you donate money to the cause.

You want to comment on this - Click here

Snipletts!

EBS employees are once again being told that their jobs are in jeopardy and subject to privatization. Apparently, you layoff a bunch of employees, make the ones who are left work in the same manner of the contract terms and the costs go up. Heavens, if they just keep on dictating how the department will run, they may actually be able to drive costs up enough that privatization can compete.

Street Department employees are going through a similar disruptive exercise. The department is currently being re-organized into smaller chunks that could be more easily contracted out at a later date. Not that any such thing has crossed anyone’s mind. Of course not, but people sometimes think the cRaziEst things. :p

Wastewater Department employees at the Southside Waste Treatment plant are still waiting for the GBT building to get fixed. Admittedly plans are advancing to develop a system that will correct the Hydrogen Sulfide Gas problem, but repairs have not been made to existing filters or detection instruments needed to keep employees safe in the interim. Instead employees were issued handheld devices that must be carried into the building to register. This means the employees must be in harms way, before the portable monitors can detect any possible problem. Seems a bit dodgy, but the Safety Violations Hotline of the Texas Workers' Compensation Commission has been notified.

Code Enforcement employees need to be aware that their department is the first to receive training for its supervision staff. Ideally this will teach them how to be better supervisors, so that problems can be addressed and corrected before they result in employee termination. But the main thrust of the training may well be to make sure that errors on the part of supervision do not allow fired employees to get their jobs back. Be aware.

Changing City Records

Just a reminder to all employees involved with record keeping. DO NOT change any record, drop any charges or close any cases unless you are following the City’s standard written procedure. This includes those times when you are requested to make an exception to do so by your supervisor, or someone over them.

The job you save may be your own. If the reason you are making these changes is a good and valid one, your supervisor will not mind sending you a memo authorizing the changes or signing (wet signature, no verbal) off on the changes. Please remember that merely giving you a copy of the request for change from a higher authority is not authorization. A year or so down the line, you do not want to be dependant upon your supervisor acknowledging that they told you change those records. Face it, people forget, people transfer to other departments, people leave the city. When your records are being examined, you will be the one held responsible for the change(s) If your supervisor is reluctant to give you the directive in writing or initial the changes, then beware. Be smart, protect yourself.

Teamster Thanks

As mentioned in the last month’s news letter, we were invited to send a spokesperson to the monthly meeting of Teamsters Local #745. They had two speakers that meeting, the Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson and our President Michealle Frey. With over 1000 teamster members present, it was a wonderful opportunity present our feelings on the changes that city employees would face should Prop 1 pass. We were most appreciative of the opportunity to speak and thank all the Teamsters including Bud Smith and Pat Everett. We especially appreciate Richard Ford for getting us an invitation to speak.

Miller Speaks - Kind Of!

Mayor Miller is spreading a few untruths again. You can find the entire letter and transcript at our site

You want to comment on this - Click here

Meetings Times

Join us on the 2 nd Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m.

Oakwood Towers - 3626 N. Hall Street - Suite 411, Dallas Texas

Don’t forget Parking is free in the attached garage after 5 p.m.

Get the Fax!

If you have a fax you can be the first to know what is happening. Simply fax your name and fax number to 214-760-7423 to be put on the fax info list. Want to be notified at home when a new newsletter is published? Email your home email address to newsletter@cityofdallasemployees.com or fax it to 214-760-7423. Or you can always just check on our website.

Help your Association by helping yourself.

You can help grow your union and get paid at the same time. You can earn $10.00 for each member you sign up!. And they get a hat and the knowledge that they taking a positive step towards creating a better workplace.

Best yet? You don’t even have to stop in the office to turn in the cards. All you have to do is put your name at the bottom of the new members card and then mail or fax it into the office. It is that simple.

As soon as that new member appears on our membership rolls, you can pick up your check at the next meeting.

You want to comment on this - Click here