CSD Area Update #3 (as of 6/2/11)

By Amy Achilles

A DTB was filed 4/20/11 regarding benefit portal. No notice was received and not a lot of detail is available but members have brought forward concerns directly to me that resulted in the filing. No team has been developed and no meetings have been scheduled yet. I have received communication from Babs explaining what benefit portal is, we will now need to schedule a meeting as it results in some concerns about contracting out.

A DTB was filed 3/17/11 regarding management’s intent to eliminate or reduce their presence in the communities of Othello, Colfax, Stevenson and South Bend. I have received recommendations for team members from every area. Meetings have not yet been scheduled on this issue and management has informally stated that the notice was a bit premature as a decision has not yet been made.  Community partners are taking action on their own in response to this proposal and a letter from the South Bend Mayor’s office was received in HQ.

A DTB was filed on 3/17/11 in response to management’s intent to relocate the King North CSO to the North Seattle Community College Campus effective 5/6/11. The team appointed to this is Justin Fellores, Greg Gunther and Herbie Martin. The meeting occurred on 4/28/11. The main issue per the CR was parking costs and free parking has already been arranged. Other issues such as safety committees, bulletin boards etc. were addressed at the meeting. We are in the process of scheduling a follow up meeting.

A DTB was filed 2/9/11 regarding management’s intent to reconfigure EBT services. The team appointed to this DTB is Gayle Chamberlain-Smith, Daniel D’Haem and Rod Sauer. Jeanine is attending as well. The first meeting occurred on 3/31/11. This meeting was mainly an informational session at which we walked through their proposal and questioned each section. A follow up information request has been sent and responded to. It has also come to our attention that concerned community partners are now involved and lobbying/looking at potential actions they can take. A follow up meeting occurred on 4/15/11 at which we maintained our position that fraud can be addressed through bills pending and that EBT issuance should remain in house.  At our meeting on 4/27/11, we again maintained our position that proper notice was not received and we were not convinced this would achieve a cost savings or efficiency as required by the RCW. Management acknowledged that the notice was not proper and has now delayed implementation until 7/11/11. Between now and then we have agreed to have 3 more meetings to discuss concerns/alternatives and possibly implementation. The first of these meetings is scheduled for 6/3 and we intend to propose a pilot, data monitoring etc. as both teams positions are purely speculative as there is no data to determine efficiency or lack of.

A DTB was filed 1/27/11 regarding management’s proposal to compress the work hours in CSD. The offices would close to clients at 3pm each day to allow all staff (CSC & CSD) to work batch and have daily protected time. This was actually based off of suggestions made repeatedly by the membership at other meetings. An informal meeting occurred on 2/15 and implementation has occurred. The team was Gayle Chamberlain-Smith, Daniel D’Haem, Karen Mork, Randall Kurtz and Judith McMahon.  This was easily resolved through a teleconference/informational discussion and has since been expanded to go through 7/11.

A DTB was filed 1/7/11 not in response to a notice, but to a change in leave approval practices at the Mt. Vernon CSO. A lengthy information request was sent in order to prepare we’ve just had our first  meeting on 4/19/11. Resolution has not been reached and follow up is in process, we are still awaiting an information request.  The team appointed is Marci Douglas-Bumgarner, Diane Linnell-Merry and Terea Gilmore.  A request for follow-up was sent to HR on 6/2/11.

A DTB was filed 11/29/10 regarding management’s intent to adjust expectations for all of CSD. The final agreement was a reduction in nearly every area of the performance measures. I have sent a summary of this to reps with CSD. The team for this was Gayle Chamberlain-Smith, Rod Sauer, Randall Kurtz, Karen Mork and Daniel D’Haem. This DTB is now closed.

A DTB was filed 11/5/10 at the direction of the C28GC regarding distribution of OT in CSD.  A DTB meeting occurred on 2/14/11 and agreement was reached. The issue was the sharing of OT between Regions and Districts. Due to impending changes in the structure of Regions and Districts no longer existing, this is likely to come up again. The team was Lisa Luna, Debbie Seybold and Gayle Chamberlain-Smith. Communications have now gone out to members from Babs. This DTB will be closed.

A DTB was filed 10/19/10 regarding notification from the CSC that they will be moving toward connecting all of the call centers and going live with a statewide CSC. We have had four meetings with management and reached agreement at the final meeting on 2/16/11. The team was Gayle Chamberlain-Smith, Rod Sauer and Randall Kurtz. They worked hard gathering input from hundreds of their co-workers and developed two proposals to consider as alternatives. The final plan is a blend of the members’ and managements’ concepts.  Some issues have arisen from function selection and a CSC UMCC was requested on 6/2/11.

A DTB was filed 9/7/10 regarding the CSC implementing a statewide tele-work project. This has been completed and is now closed. Six monthly follow up teleconferences have also now been completed and a detailed summary of the final meeting went to all CSD reps. The next step is to expand the opportunity to about 70 more people over the summer.  A request was sent 6/2/11 to have a CSC UMCC and for this to be on the agenda.

A DTB was filed 4/27/10 on Disability Lifeline. Kurt and Jeanine were involved in this process and a settlement has just been finalized that will allow ongoing ad-hoc type meetings to address issues related to Disability Lifeline as they arise. Legislative session will likely change the outcome of this DTB so this is pretty much on hold pending that information.  This will be reviewed soon now that leg. session is over.

The final SDR Ad-Hoc Meeting occurred on 12/17/10.

Note that the Regional Consolidation issues are being handled by a large group and the staff person assigned is Debby Lippincott. A CSD Ad-Hoc was agreed to and has been scheduled for 6/8/11.