Under Director Thomas Cetrino, the Research Department's six staff members spearhead PEF's work on civil-service issues, employment security and fiscal and public policy at the state and federal levels. The department shares administrative staff with the Contract Administration Department and the Director of Labor Relations. In May of 1998, Susan Mitnick began working exclusively on Office of Mental Health and Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities fiscal and public-policy issues. Her three-fifths time budget analyst position will be filled in the fall of 1998.
Civil Service
The department handles all member inquiries concerning civil service, reclassification/reallocation, salary determination, layoff, and retirement issues that are forwarded by the field staff, Executive Board members, and statewide labor/management chairs.
Employment Security
The department also coordinates PEF’s anti-contracting-out efforts. This staff also provides primary research assistance on state pension issues and to membership committees such as the Deferred Compensation Committee.
Fiscal and Public Policy
The department also researches the impact on PEF members of state and federal budgets and legislation, as well as other public policies.
Major Activities
Civil Service
The department continued regular monitoring of the activities of the Department of Civil Service (DCS) and the various state appointing authorities, which is an important part of PEF's ongoing efforts to preserve the merit system.
From September 1, 1997 through August 31, 1998, the Research Department opened 357 and closed 329 civil-service cases. The vast majority of these cases involved early and regular retirement questions, probationary terminations, salary determinations, reclassification/reallocation inquiries, out-of-title work complaints, transfer rights, eligible-list issues, layoff rights and procedures, and civil-service-exam inquiries.
In addition, the department responded to approximately 700 telephone inquiries on a wide variety of topics including requests for seniority lists, eligible lists, job descriptions, exam announcements, preferred list and reemployment list comparable titles and various questions concerning time and attendance, transfer rights, salary inquiries and civil-service-exams.
Currently, there are 28 cases more than two-months-old and not pending the action of another entity. There are also 102 cases that are currently awaiting a response from DCS or the Civil Service Commission (CSC), awaiting court action, or awaiting further action or information from the involved parties.
The department raised issues concerning requests to the CSC by state agencies to place positions in the non-competitive and exempt jurisdictional classes and challenged various transfers, promotions, civil-service-examination announcements, and the classification and reallocation of positions.
Some of the more notable civil-service-enforcement issues in which we were involved include a successful appeal of the Banking Department’s request to create 74 new non-competitive positions. Due to our appeal, 39 of these positions were kept in the competitive class, and PEF has filed a lawsuit challenging the creation of the 35 non-competitive positions. In addition, we referred to the Legal Department a case challenging several §70.2 transfers from the Department of Social Services to various agencies. PEF has also filed a lawsuit on this issue.
Staff continues to monitor the implementation of the Promotion Test Battery (PTB) and its use in filling competitive-class titles. President Benson, appointed a workgroup consisting of PEF statewide officers, members, and staff to discuss our concerns about the PTB with DCS staff. This workgroup reached an agreement for DCS to provide in the 1998 PTB Study Guide a modified version of an actual simulation problem, questions, and answers that were used in a previous PTB. In addition, DCS has provided PEF with a list of upcoming examinations through May 1999 that will likely use the PTB and has asked for PEF’s input as to whether another test is needed to measure technical skills that have not been previously tested.
Staff has also provided technical assistance to the Statewide Civil Service Committee. At the committee’s direction, we have worked with the PEF legislative director to draft legislation prohibiting §70.1 and §52.6 transfers in the face of an eligible list and requiring reassignments to be made on a seniority basis.
Fiscal and Public Policy
The department prepared analyses and public testimony, and researched and created fact sheets, about the impact on PEF members of the Executive Budget proposal, all related proposals, the governor’s vetoes, the enacted 98-99 State Budget and the additional tax cuts. Armed with this information, PEF officers, member activists and staff were prepared for successful lobbying and fight-back efforts. A major accomplishment this year was securing the Division of Budget’s approval to fill 450 engineering-services positions at the Department of Transportation.
Analyses were also prepared of federal initiatives and budget legislation and their impact on major state programs and PEF members' jobs. Our most extensive work focused on higher education, transportation, employment services, and vocational-rehabilitation issues. AFT and SEIU’s Washington D.C. staffs have been very helpful in assisting the PEF Research Department in monitoring federal issues. We have been particularly successful in fighting legislation that would allow the privatization of the employment services program.
Staff support was also provided to the EDP Committee and the department acted as a liaison to the Office of Technology. In this role, we monitored and met with GOER and management representatives, and prepared analyses and status updates for members on the on-going consolidation of various state mainframe data centers and the implementation of the Human Services Application Services Center. Our work has resulted in a state policy to allow, rather than exclusively using existing legal authority to transfer a function, voluntary transfers using seniority as a consideration, to staff the data centers as agencies’ data centers are consolidated into the central data centers.
Staff also prepared an analysis of the Office of Mental Health’s Special Needs Plans program, and wrote legislative testimony and letters regarding the need to ensure that state-operated programs have a defined role in this program. In addition, we have started work with PEF leaders from OMH and OMRDD to develop program proposals to ensure future employment security for PEF members and their positions in a downsized OMH and OMRDD.
The department prepared an analysis of and legislative letters concerning Jenna’s Law and a CTB-McGraw Hill contract with the state Education Department (SED) to develop math, language arts, and English competency exams. Our work helped PEF achieve a mandatory community-supervision component in the enacted Jenna’s Law and resulted in additional positions and promotions in the test-development unit at SED. Part of the CTB-McGraw Hill contract has still not been approved and the groundwork has been completed to try to preclude similar SED contracts in the future.
Employment Security
The department worked on several employment-security issues during 1998. The most notable included: