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Vote or Die!
Okay,
perhaps not die. Let us not be too dramatic. However there are several items
on the City Charter Change Propositions that are important to you as a city
employee. Some may seem like they only affect a few people in this
department or that, but they don’t, they affect all of us for numerous
reasons.
The
important thing to remember is that these elections are going to have a very
light turn out. This means that YOU
can make a difference! Unfortunately this also means that if you blow
off voting, and some of these props win by only a handful of votes, YOU
are going to wish you had taken the time to go vote.
The
following are highlights of the various proposals that will affect city
employees. Some of these are quite long you would want to read the whole
thing before voting. Early voting began on Oct. 24, Election Day is Nov. 8.
Proposition 1
– the Dallas Morning News thinks this is a wonderful idea mainly because
it would let the mayor hire someone who shares their *vision*. Okay…. So
that means, how you feel about this proposition will depend on how much you
think your future would be enhanced by the city manager being in lock step
with the mayors visions. Could be good, could be incredibly scary. They
totally IGNORE the 50% pay increase for the mayor. Prop 1 would:
Ø
Would let the
mayor hire and fire the city manager. (Ed. Note: Which means while council
could get together and fire them, the city manager would work at the WHIM of
the mayor.) 
Ø
It would give
the mayor a $60,000.00 pay raise.
Ø
Require the
manager to get the mayor's concurrence when hiring a police or fire chief.
Ø
Make the
annual budget a joint responsibility of the mayor and manager. (Ed. Note:
Like they don’t already have enough input?)
Proposition
2 – This one
seems pretty harmless, until you look past the residency requirements.
Tucked into this prop is the wording that lets the city secretary and city
council choose their assistants. This means that the employees working in
the council office would have no way of knowing what would happen to them
every time there was an election. The original intent was that council could
hire and fire their assistants at will, because as we all know, there is
nothing better than having an ‘at will’ job. But then it was pointed out
that this would leave the individual council members holding the bag in case
of any wrongful termination lawsuits. Quelle
horreur! So after checking to make sure that any hand picked candidates
they send would be vetted and put on a hiring list, regardless of whether
the list was open or not, this slid through. If this one passes it would
insure that people working for the council and city secretary have a vested
interest in looking the other way in the event that any *improper*
procedures occur. Prop 2 would:
Ø
Require city
manager, city attorney, auditor and city secretary to live in
Dallas
.
Ø
Allows a
majority of City Council members to fire the city attorney or the city
secretary.
Ø
Lets the city
secretary and council members choose their own assistants.
Proposition
5 ; Makes it
easier to fire those employees who do not have civil service protections.
They cite ex-police chief Terrell Bolton, but this would also apply to
people in purchasing, parks, and other non-civil service department. Also
tucked in this proposition is a change to Civil Service rules that apply to
the rest of us. This part *clarifies* the standard that will apply in civil
service hearing. Rather than stricter legal standards this would change to
“what a reasonable person would determine.” Sounds reasonable yes? But
is it legal? Who cares, strict legal definitions can be so tedious, and why
should determining that supervision did not administer discipline in a
proper legal manner stand in the way of a good termination.
Prop 5 would: 
Ø
Streamline
the firing of non-civil service employees
Ø
Change the
rules under which civil service review board can be re-instated terminated
employees
Proposition
7 starts off by
talking about expired board and commissions, but then mandates that everyone
would have to go through this Charter Change process every 10 years whether
we deserve that much fun or not. Prop 7 would:
Ø
Decree that
members of boards and/or commission cannot serve indefiniatley after the
expiration of their term. They have a nine month extention max even if no
replacement has been appointed.
Ø
Mandates that
the City Council appoint a charter review commission at least every 10
years.
The
propositions below have little if any direct impact on city employees.
Proposition
3 allows the removal of municipal judges prior to the expiration of their
terms. Currently they have no way of doing that to judges who have violated
the law.
Proposition
4: Allows the city to develop a plan to continue city government in the
event that all elected officials become disabled or die.
Proposition
6 – Mainly housekeeping. Would require the city to publish a list of
donors for each candidate for city office. The Gives Dallas more time to
count its ballots, including those from overseas to match changes in state
law. Shift the council inauguration date back to allow the counting time.
Set official time for elections to occur, it is currently May, but that is
not mandated by city code
Proposition
8 cleans up old language and changes titles to match what the positions are
currently called.
Proposition
9 allows the city to grant certain franchises and exempt them from city rate
regulation
Proposition
10 Changes the name from Dallas Fire Department to Dallas Fire-Rescue and to
allows them to do some police functions like crowd control.
Proposition
11 deletes the requirement that the City Council designate an ‘official’
city newspaper for the city's legally required notices.
Proposition
12 simplifies the wording on the section of the city charter that allows the
city to annex or de-annex property.
Proposition
13 would allow changes to make the charter language gender neutral.
City
Proposition 14: Would provide $23.8 million in bond money to build the
homeless assistance center. (Ed. Note: The where of the shelter is NOT
specified. That could make it a bit interesting, since they have yet to
agree on a location.
THE
FLU AND YOU
The flu is
a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses.
It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times even death.
The best way to prevent catching the flu is a yearly vaccination.
Every year in the
United
States
, on average: 5%to 20% of the
population gets the flu, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu
complications and about 36,000 people die from flu.
Some people, such as older people, young children, and people with certain
health conditions, are at high risk for serious flu complications.
Symptoms of flu include fever (usually high) runny or stuffy nose,
headache, muscle aches, extreme tiredness. Stomach symptoms, nausea, dry
cough, and diarrhea can also occur. Sore throats are more common in children
than adults.
Complications of the flu can include bacterial pneumonia, dehydration,
worsening of chronic medical conditions, such as congestive heart failure,
asthma, or diabetes. Children
may get sinus problems and ear infections.
Flu viruses spread in respiratory droplets caused by coughing and
sneezing. They usually spread
from person to person, though sometimes people become infected by touching
something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.
The viruses can live several hours on solid surfaces.
The vaccine changes each year based on viruses circulating the previous
year. October or November is the
best time to get vaccinated, but getting vaccinated in December or even
later can still be beneficial. Flu
season can begin as early as October and last as late as May.
It takes two weeks to develop protective antibodies from the
flu vaccine. See the CDC website
at http:www.cdc.gov
for info on who should and who should
not receive the flu vaccine. – Nurse Carol
HMO
Prices Skyrocket?
If
you use the Blue Cross HMO, you may find an unpleasant suprise. The
HMO increases range from 30% to 65%. Huh??? 65%? That is a pretty huge
jump! This means that approximately 23% of the city employees will
see a huge increase in their health insurance costs. Was this perhaps
the reason for all the artful dancing that was done by city staff during
the benefits portion of the budget meeting? Could be.
Somehow
I do not think that Blue Cross hit the city with this without warning.
Kinda makes you wonder why this wasn't mentioned during the budget
meetings. Well, maybe not. Kinda hard to say you aren't raising the
cost of health care when you are blasting it through the roof for such a
large percentage of your employees.
But
look on the bright side, if you can survive until the April merit raise
you can defray this income hit a bit. Wait a minute, I forgot about the
pension cost increase. My bad.
Oh
well, Looks like yet another year of wage erosion. *sigh* But look on the
bright side at least we are appreciated! What do you mean you don't feel cherished?
You better feel cherished and appreciated right this minute! Are they
not putting up plaques at city hall to raise our moral? Who
cares if you can't pay your electric bill, those plaques cost money! Not
as much money as decent raises and benefits but still they cost!
Those
of you who have HMO’s should let council know how this is going to
affect your choices and your budget this year.
I
have listed links for last years guide so you can compare plan options and
prices if you need to.
http://www.cityofdallasemployees.com/2006BenefitsEnrollmentGuide.pdf
http://www.cityofdallasemployees.com/2005AnnualEnrollmentGuide.pdf
Drug
Formularies - Please remember that these documents are subject to
change up to January 1, 2006
United
Health Care .pdf
