August 2014

First, please attend tonight’s Board of Supervisors Candidates Forum (Tuesday 8/26/14). We will be serving free beer AND making a decision about one of the Supervisor’s candidates that could very well make a huge difference to wages and working conditions of all DDAs.

Second, start planning to attend the Awards Dinner in October! Tentatively I believe and am hopeful that the current Governor of California will attend. I also believe DA Jackie Lacey will attend and present an ADDA award to the next Sheriff of Los Angeles County, James McDonnell. The ADDA, and I personally, am delighted that these dignitaries will attend and honor the current award recipients recognized by the ADDA, the ADDA, itself, and the ADDA’s efforts on behalf of all DDAs. I think the Dinner is tentatively scheduled for Thursday 10/30, but more information and fliers will soon be forthcoming. In this regard, I want to thank Director Bobby Grace for his hard work making this event happen!

Third, FOR A FEW DOLLARS more you can join the ADDA as a full voting member and vote on the upcoming decision to permanently affiliate with AFSCME or to disaffiliate. This is extremely important to the future of your Certified Bargaining Unit which represents YOU!  You need to become a full voting member by October to ensure your right to vote on disaffiliation!

Fourth, I am informed and believe and thereupon reservedly allege that at the next Saturday Seminar we will actually present a “framed” scroll to the DDA of the Month! Shocking! The Board discussed delivering the overdue scrolls to the DDAs at our upcoming Awards Dinner.  Hopefully, this problem has been solved for the foreseeable future. Thank you Director Bobby Grace and former Director Karen Tandler!

Since we cannot obtain the results we need through local channels, we are pursuing LEGISLATION to overcome the logger jam concerning DDAs bypassing security screening. Further, we may soon be meeting generally with Lobbyists and Legislators in meetings in which we begin to address our security concerns.

Assistant DA Pam Booth confirmed that the Grade IV promotional list has been extended 6 months, or until February, 2015.

You will be receiving the next 2% COLA in October.

There has been some optimism expressed by ADDA Executive Vice President Jeff McGrath and Business Representative Tris Carpenter who have attended legislative and lobbying efforts in Sacramento, along with the efforts of DDA Michelle Hanisee, that there may be some movement to secure what otherwise should be the confidential addresses and information regarding DDAs that appear on County real estate records. While we may not get everything we are asking for, we hope to succeed in obtaining some improvements. It’s a start at protecting all DDAs.

Executive Vice President Jeff McGrath has begun a salary comparison study in preparation for the upcoming MOU/Contract Negotiations that commence next year. If you are interested in assisting him in any way in this project as well as ultimately assisting your colleagues in the ADDA’s effort to improve wages, we could use your help.  Please contact McGrath.  The sooner we begin our preparations, the stronger we will be when the time comes to explain the disingenuousness of the County’s salary position.  Tris Carpenter has also asked AFSCME International to assist in researching and analyzing these financial concerns on behalf of the ADDA.

We voted to oppose Proposition 47 which seeks to reduce criminal sentences. You will be hearing more about this in an upcoming email solely on this topic.

We voted to endorse Elan Carr, a DDA, for U.S. Congress (33rd District).

On 8/21/14, ADDA Vice President James Bozajian retired from the DA’s office. As such, his position will be open.  James has been a DDA for 24 years and has served on the ADDA Board for 22 of those years. He has been a past President of the ADDA. The New By-Laws permit retired DDAs to be non-voting Associate Members and James will be the first one and will help organize retired DDAs who are interested in assisting or participating as non-voting Associate Members. We thank James for his many years of service and wish him well in his new career.

If you are interested in joining the Board as a Director or Officer, [Secretary or Vice President] please let us know.

Also, we have openings for 3 Trustees whose duties will be to audit the financial activities of the Board.  If you are interested, please let any Board member know. There will be an election held on this, or possibly appointments, depending on the number of those who are interested in the position.

We will be informing our members of Policy 910 in an upcoming email, which basically entitles you to representation in potential disciplinary contacts with the Administration. DDAs have frequently been told by representatives of the Office that they do not have such a right.  County Policy 910 contradicts that.

Along the same lines, the ADDA will be discussing in greater depth what is called the Duty of Fair Representation. This will be the new Board’s effort to outline what the ADDA’s obligations will be to our members in terms of providing counsel or other representation.  When we determine what our general obligations should be, at that point, Richard Shinee, our General Counsel, will generate the ADDA Policy on this important topic which we will then disseminate.

In our consultation with Cerrell we have received recommendations for improving our website, and will be updating its look in the near future. They also have made several suggestions on how to begin advancing and strengthening the voice of the ADDA throughout this County.

There is a Legislative effort by this County, Assembly Bill 1881, as well as the City of L.A. to significant undermine the neutrality of ERCOM [the Employee Relations Committee] by tilting the selection of hearing officers in a way that creates a bias in favor of their ruling for the County, thus compromising any reason to seek out ERCOM as a forum to resolve disputes. This Legislation is vigorously being opposed by those who want to ensure a fair hearing.  The three ERCOM Commissioners resigned from ERCOM in a public protest of what they consider the County’s outrageous effort to take over a forum that has historically been impartial, detached, objective and not aligned with the County. ERCOM is, essentially, the County Forum that addresses issue which arise between the Departments or Administration, on one side, and the Certified Bargaining Units and employees, on the other side. ERCOM replaced PERB [which is the state wide forum] and functions much the same as the NLRB [which is the federal forum].

We are closer to approving a booklet which contains our current MOU/Contract for distribution to DDAs.

The new By-Laws passed.

The PAC [Political Action Committee] can now be formed. We are hiring a treasurer for that. We should have more to tell on the initial and monthly allocation structure by the next Board Meeting, which is Tuesday, 9/16/14. All DDAs are invited.

The new By-Laws require a quarterly Membership Meeting. We will be disseminating information on the first meeting soon! Tentatively, it may be 9/16/14 at a meeting hall/restaurant downtown.

The new dues structure, 0.6%, will soon be implemented.

Please consider volunteering on any of the ADDA’s multiple committees all of which have but one overall goal, to assist DDAs and improve wages and working conditions.

 

Marc Debbaudt

ADDA President

 

ADDA Leadership

OFFICERS:

Marc Debbaudt, President

Jeff McGrath, Executive Vice President

Vice President                 — OPENING

Secretary                          — OPENING

James Evans, Treasurer Stuart Lytton

DIRECTORS:

Anthony Colannino

Craig Gold

Bobby Grace

John Harrold

Loren Naiman

Eric Siddall

 

COUNSEL AND STAFF:

Richard Shinee, General Counsel

Tris Carpenter, AFSCME Business Representative [tris@afscme36.org]

Juliana Konze, Recording Secretary

Website: laadda.com

July 2014

On 7/15/14 the ADDA Board of Directors convened at a regularly scheduled meeting.

Please note that at the end of this update I will provide in detail the resolutions which the Board passed concerning the issue of “Withdrawal” or “Disaffiliation” from AFSCME.

The following update concerns general matters discussed at the regularly scheduled Board meeting.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS: Your Board has begun to discuss and address preparations for the negotiation of our next MOU/Contract with the County. Besides hiring consultants, we are beginning extensive research so that we are as informed as humanly possible and ready to present our positions in the best possible light in order ensure our success. Soon, some of that research will be presented to you in our membership emails which tentatively will be entitled “DID YOU KNOW?”  These emails will consist of short statements of fact from the Board, with perhaps a little more explication beneath, which will serve to compare and contrast the circumstances of the DDAs in this office with other Departments and other Counties, etcetera. We want our members to be fully informed of our situation in order to increase their support of our efforts. If any of you are interested in assisting us with this effort, please contact me. This, above all else, is what the ADDA Bargaining Unit is all about!

The Board voted to purchase and disseminate a booklet containing our current MOU so all members will know its terms and their rights.  The MOU can be found on our website at laadda.com.

COMMUNICATION: The Board, thanks to the efforts of Director Eric Siddall, Chairperson of the Communications Committee, and Directors Bobby Grace and John Harrold, have selected Cerrell Associates Inc., initially at AFSCME expense, to serve as our communications consultant. Cerrell is a successful public affairs and public relations firms that will help your Board develop strategies both to shape public opinion and influence the decision-making process of the Board of Supervisors in our effort to advance the interest of DDAs.

BY-LAWS RATIFICATION: All full dues paying members should have received ballots by now on the ratification of new By-Laws which was required by our affiliation agreement with AFSCME. There’s are some interesting changes reflected in them which we have explained in emails and the materials we included with the ballots. One of those terms is the right of the Board to reduce dues, not raise them, without the need for a membership vote.

SCROLLS: I am told that at the next Saturday Seminar the ADDA’s new scroll will make its first appearance, and that we will possibly even deliver scrolls to those honorees who have long been awaiting them.

BONUS PAY: A committee is still researching the “bonus pay” for service in Lancaster issue. Our intention when we fully understand it, is to send an email out explaining how it works and to determine whether it has been applied fairly to DDAs. Hopefully we will have that done soon.

PENSIONABLE CAP: You may not be aware, because the issue applied solely to those hired before 1996, but the DA Administration and the ADDA recently sent a collaborative email to all DDAs affected by the recurring “Pensionable Cap” waiver conundrum.  I want to thank both Assistant DA Pam Booth and ADDA Executive Vice President Jeff McGrath who worked hard and quickly under a relatively short deadline to figure out the issue and communicate information gathered from the CEO’s office to the DDAs directly affected by this matter.  Thank you both!

GENERAL COUNSEL The Board agreed to hire the law firm of Green & Shinee to be our General Counsel.  Richard Shinee, Senior Partner, represents ALADS. ALADS funded Green & Shinee when the County battled our right to be an independent Bargaining Unit.  We prevailed. Subsequently, Shinee represented us at ERCOM and prevailed on the PERSA performance evaluation complaint. That is now in the process of an appeal. Shinee also represented us on the unfair labor practice complaint against the former DA and prevailed. That decision was overturned due to emails exchanged between the hearing officer and the executive director. It was then remanded to ERCOM for a new hearing which is pending and the subject of ongoing negotiations

Richard Shinee will be advising us on all matters of labor related law as well as will prepare the long overdue ADDA DFR [Duty of Fair Representation] policy.

ENDORSEMENT: We endorsed Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney Thomas J. Griego for judge in the upcoming general election. Griego is running against criminal defense attorney Andy Stein {Andrew M. Stein} who, in the primary, utilized the ballot designation “Gang/Homicide Attorney.”  The Board previously endorsed Deputy District Attorney Steven Schreiner who, unfortunately, did not make it to the run off.

AWARDS DINNER: Our DDA Awards Dinner, organized by the indefatigable Director Bobby Grace, is scheduled for this October. More information and the exact date will be forthcoming. Leave October open. This should be the best yet!

BOARD OF SUPERVISOR’S FORUM: More information from ADDA Vice President James Bozajian on the 3rd District Board of Supervisor Forum we are planning concerning the runoff between Sheila Kuehl and Bobby Shriver will be posted soon. The Board has not yet decided whether to endorse in this election or who to endorse, but it is too important to all of you not to learn as much as we can. Stay tuned.

OUTREACH: The Membership Outreach Committee has finished the Town Hall Forums and will soon begin follow-ups as requested by various members. Director Craig Gold and Business Representative Tris Carpenter and other Directors have worked hard to commence direct communications with all members in order to directly answer concerns and address problems.  This effort is just beginning, and there will be more to come.

LIABILTY FOR DEVICES: The ADDA is in ongoing discussion with the ADDA Administration on what we term the Laptop Liability issue, what has now expanded into the Electronic Devices Liability issue, in terms of DDA responsibilities. More on that to come.

DISAFFILIATION ELECTION

On 7/15/14 the Board began to prepare for the decision whether or not to withdraw from our affiliation with AFSCME or to permanently merge into AFSCME.

As you know, when I ran for President I expressly declared that my immediate goal was to ensure that full dues paying members of the ADDA will get to vote on whether to be permanently merged into AFSCME or to disaffiliate. If you’ve read the President’s Page on our laadda.com website, I began to outline the process.

The terms of the ADDA Affiliation Agreement with AFSCME provide a very limited window, which occurs this December, only months away, to exercise the provisions that have been called the “Escape Clause.”

In order for that to occur smoothly and with full compliance with our Affiliation Agreement, I believe preparations must begin immediately.

Pursuant to the ADDA-AFSCME AFFILIATION AGREEMENT Side Letter on Implementation dated May 5, 2011, paragraph 2, Withdrawal from Affiliation:

“ADDA will have an opportunity to reconsider the permanency of affiliation three (3) years after successful implementation of agency shop for the ADDA bargaining unit (for the purpose of the provision “successful implementation” shall mean the date the ADDA begins to receive agency fee payments)…”

Ms. Cheryl Parisi, Executive Director, AFSCME District Council 36, previously confirmed to the Board that “the first agency fee was received in the pay period commencing Dec 15, 2011.” Therefore, the three year date for reconsideration of our affiliation begins December 15, 2014.

“Any such reconsideration shall be valid only if it occurs during the first sixty (60) day period after the relevant third year.”

By the terms of the Agreement, the decision whether to disaffiliate or permanently merge must be made by Friday the 13th of February, 2015. However, in reality, pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, once the decision to reconsider is formally made, the timing is much, much shorter than 60 days. When the resolution for withdrawal commences, there is only a 30 day window to complete the process.

“The vote to withdraw from the affiliation shall be held … during the sixty (60) day period … [When] the ADDA Board of Directors approves a withdrawal resolution that shall be subject to a membership vote to affirm or reject the withdrawal no more than 30 days thereafter…”

Therefore, when we commence the “withdrawal resolution” process, the time period in which everything must be completed is within 30 days, not 60 days. As it turns out that 30 day window occurs in the heart of the holidays, Christmas, when the Board itself, as well as our members, are distracted, busy, vacationing, etcetera. This, of course, provides all the more reason for advance preparation.

“AFSCME will be afforded the right to address the Board and the membership prior to any such votes being taken.”

It appears clear from the terms of the Agreement that the Board of Directors of the ADDA could, unilaterally, decide not to approve a “withdrawal resolution” and deny the membership the right to vote. Pursuant to the Side Letter on Implementation and within this 30 day period, AFSCME will have the right to communicate directly with the Board to persuade the Board to unilaterally make this decision and not provide dues paying membership with their right to vote on this issue. Furthermore, AFSCME will have the right to communicate directly with you, the membership, obviously to persuade you to vote against the resolution to withdraw from affiliation. Of course, this will only happen should the Board pass the resolution and submit it to the membership for their vote.

Given my platform, I, obviously, believe that would be a huge mistake and an unacceptable denial of democracy to the dues paying members of the ADDA and I hope that the Board, at the appropriate time, will choose to affirm the right of the membership to make this important decision. In my opinion the membership should have the ultimate right to decide whether to permanently affiliate or to withdraw/disaffiliate. While I am hopeful that the Board will unanimously agree to provide the members with their right to vote whether to disaffiliate or to merge permanently into AFSCME, clearly AFSCME has a contractual right to dissuade the Board.

Because we have legal and contractual obligations to AFSCME, and acknowledging the interest that AFSCME has to ensure permanent affiliation, I believe it is important that the Board proceeds cautiously and with legal advice to ensure that we completely fulfill all of our obligations to AFSCME. Also, should our membership vote to permanently affiliate or to disaffiliate, and in recognition that there may be divided factions in our office on this issue, I want to ensure that we have no breach that will impair in any way the final outcome.

Given these realities, on 7/15/14 at our regularly scheduled meeting the ADDA Board voted to adopt the following resolutions

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE ADDA HEREBY RESOLVES:

1.  In compliance with the terms of ADDA-AFSCME AFFILIATION AGREEMENT Side Letter on Implementation dated May 5, 2011, paragraph 2, Withdrawal from Affiliation, the “withdrawal resolution” will be Agendized for a vote to occur on the regularly scheduled Tuesday, December 16, 2014, Board Meeting. All members are entitled to and will be invited to attend that meeting. Reminders and notice will be disseminated several times far in advance of this date.

2.  The Board further resolves that at that Board meeting, and prior to the vote of the Board, in full compliance with the terms of the agreement, AFSCME will be invited to address the Board.

3.  The Board further resolves that on that date, 12/16/14, a vote will be held after AFSCME addresses the Board to submit to the voting membership the decision to remain permanently affiliated with AFSCME or to disaffiliate from AFSCME.

4.  The Board further resolves that on 12/16/14, assuming the Board passes the “Withdrawal resolution” to submit the matter of withdrawal to the voting membership, the Board will vote to immediately distribute to the membership appropriate ballots concerning adoption of the “withdrawal resolution.”

5.  The Board further resolves that the ballots and ballot materials, including pro and con statements, shall be ready for distribution on that day, so that they are mailed out Wednesday, December 17th, 2014 along with the ballots and without delay.

6.  Furthermore, this will serve as notice of a Special Meeting on January 6, 2015 to address any and all problems and last minute issues that may arise. The Board further resolves that ballots will be counted and tabulated on Tuesday, January 6th, 2015, commencing at 6:00 p.m. Subsequent to tabulation of the vote the Board will convene on January 6th, 2015 to approve, adopt and ratify the membership vote.

7.  The Board further resolves that immediately following the Board ratification of the vote of the membership, and assuming that Disaffiliation prevails, the Board will then immediately convene to discuss and vote on necessary interim business items in order to implement a system that will replace AFSCME and assure the continued functioning of the Board. Those items will be Agendized prior to the January 6th and January 13th, 2015 meetings.

8.  The Board further resolves that this will also serve as notice of a Special Meeting to be held on Tuesday, January 13th, 2015, if necessary, to transition the ADDA and to address any items of business necessary to assure the continued functioning of the ADDA.

9.  The Board further resolves that in order to ensure that a quorum exists, and that no efforts are made to thwart a quorum for strategic purposes given the contractual timing and financial issues involved, no excuses will be accepted by any Board member for failure to attend any of the meetings, special, telephonic or regular, noticed herein or to be noticed concerning this subject matter. The membership will be immediately informed of the decisions of the Board via email and will be informed of the failure of any Board member to attend any and all of the respective meetings.

10.  The Board further resolves, given the importance of this determination to the future of the ADDA, that the membership has a right to know how each Officer and Director stands on these issues. Therefore votes cast by each individual Board members on each of these items will be made public and disseminated to the membership.

11.  The Board agrees to retain an attorney to review the affiliation contract and assist with our preparations to assure we are in compliance.

12.  The Board agrees that the membership list will be scrutinized to ensure that past balloting problems be reduced as much as is humanly possible.

13.  The Board agrees to hire an independent agency to assist with the balloting so that both this Board and AFSCME will be above criticism in the tabulation of ballots.

Marc Debbaudt
ADDA President

June 2014

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Board occurred on Tuesday, 6/17/14, and went from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

We now have a new post office box: Post Office Box 26598, Los Angeles CA 90026. Please address all correspondence to this address.

Pursuant to our affiliation agreement with AFSCME and at their expense, AFSCME has agreed to provide us with resources to facilitate our communication with our members and the public, including the County. Director Eric Siddall reported on his efforts to retain firms specializing in communications, and by the next ADDA Board meeting on Tuesday, July 15, the goal is to retain one for 6 months. The choice seems to be between Cerrell Associates, a Los Angeles public affairs, public relations, political consulting, and government relations firm specializing in advocacy and election campaigns; or Englander, Knabe & Allen, a Southern California firm with experience, ties and relationships with local, state and federal government, elected officials and their staff, who may be able to help influence and assist us in developing effective strategies to deal with legislative and political issues.

The Board approved the creation of plaques to bestow on all those DDA judicial candidates who the ADDA endorsed and who were successful in the primary elections. Director Bobby Grace will be working on this project and will be sending out congratulations letters to all successful candidates.

Vice President James Bozajian is working on preparations for an ADDA forum for the 3rd District Board of Supervisor runoff. Anyone who wants to volunteer to assist in that project please contact James.

The extent to which the ADDA will participate in a promotional party for all those recently promoted to Grade III and Grade IV positions will be discussed at our next meeting, 7/15/14. We understand there is additional time to make this decision because the promotees want to see the increased income in their checks before they commit to funding the party.

 

Also, believe it or not, Bobby presented to the Board a scaled down example of the scrolls that will soon be created and disseminated to past and future “DDA of the Month” recipients. I asked if those overdue scrolls will be delivered to past recipients by the next meeting, and there is hope and some assurance, after more than a year, that we may have finally broken the log jam in this effort. Thanks go to Director Bobby Grace and former Director Karen Tandler for their efforts.

The Membership Outreach Committee continues to report on their “Town Hall” meetings with DDAs throughout the County and the concerns of the many DDAs who have attended. I’m told that the anxiety of the past may be fading as we now have more than 50 new full-dues paying members as a result of these efforts, and there are several more Town Hall meetings to come.

The ADDA Board is the head of a spear that is only as strong as the demonstrable unity of the supporting membership. We can succeed in improving the Transfer Policy, the promotional process, bypassing security, and increasing our salaries only to the extent that you back us by a commitment to joining the ADDA as full dues paying members. If you are not a full dues paying member and complain that we have failed, you’re the reason why. Please join the ADDA. Contact our Business Representative, Tris Carpenter at tris@afscme36.org or Director Craig Gold.

Also, if you want to read the terms of of our current MOU, or the past and proposed new By-Laws, you can find these posted as PDF files on our website at http://www.LA-ADDA.com We’ve also decided to print a small booklet of the MOU for distribution to all members.

Per our affiliation agreement with AFSCME, the ADDA is obligated to amend our By-Laws to conform to the AFSCME International Constitution. Besides that requirement, we also need to amend the By-Laws in order to add provisions authorizing the formation of a Political Action Committee [PAC] so we can begin to raise funds to support legislation and other efforts to improve the lives of DDAs. The Board has finalized the new By-Laws, approved them, and ballots will be sent to full dues payers in the middle to latter part of July, with the expectation of ballot counting and final ratification to probably occur sometime in August.

One of the principle changes in the By-Laws is a reduction of the size of the Board. Currently, the Board consists of 21 Officers and Directors, although only 11 seats are filled with 10 seats vacant including the Secretary. Coincidentally, the new By-Laws reduce the Board to 11 Officers and Directors, and 3 independently elected Trustees that primarily are responsible for regular financial auditing of the Board.

The Board voted to approve the expenditure of funds for the purchase of conferencing call equipment in an amount less than $500.

If you are interested in being a Steward on behalf of your colleagues and want to know more about what that entails, please contact our Business Representative, Tris Carpenter at tris@afscme36.org and he will answer your questions. This is important work that you can do on behalf of your colleagues.

We are looking into the issues, if any, concerning the pay step bonus for service in Lancaster. We should hear more about this at the next meeting, 7/15/14. If you have any Information or concerns about it please contact Director Craig Gold. Hopefully, we will soon better understand the criteria and implementation of that bonus. When we know more we will send out an email update explaining what we have learned.

As per our agreement, we will be meeting with AFSCME on 7/8/14 at a Special Meeting devoted solely to discuss our concerns about our relationship to AFSCME and any outstanding complaints and dissatisfactions with their performance.

We have formed a Committee to investigate concerns with workplace medical issues affecting DDAs. That Committee is comprised of James Bozajian, Bobby Grace, and Loren Naiman. If you are interested in assisting this Committee in anyway, please contact one of them and volunteer.

In preparation for bargaining when the current MOU expires, the Communications Committee and our Treasurer James Evans will be looking into what resources AFSCME has available to examine the County Budget for funding possibilities as well as determining the actual full value of our compensation in terms of salary, corollary present benefits, and future benefits. They will also consider hiring a financial analyst to assist us.

Efforts to improve by-passing security screening by DDAs are ongoing and new avenues are being explored and considered to facilitate that. I know that DA Jackie Lacey and her Administration supports this goal. As we learn more I will let you know.

The next scheduled Board meeting is Tuesday, 7/15/14. Your Board is comprised of uncompensated volunteers. There are many committees on various topics including Committees to address improving the Transfer Policy and Promotional Process. If you have complaints, let us know. The Board can always use your help to improve the lives of all our DDA colleagues. Please consider volunteering on a committee to assist our efforts. If you have a concern, the Board is here to try and resolve or dispel that concern and will devote resources especially if it is a matter that advances the interests of all DDAs.

Bargaining for a new MOU occurs in less than a year. If you have ideas and want to help us prepare to be the most effective representatives we can be at this important opportunity, please contact me.

Marc Debbaudt

President of ADDA

May 2014

On 5/20/14 your Board of Directors met at our regularly scheduled meeting.

I am relatively confident we will soon have scrolls to give to the DDAs of the Month thanks to the efforts of former Director Karen Tandler and we will try to get those to all the DDAs who have patiently been awaiting them as soon as possible. Sorry for the delay.

The Membership Outreach Committee, comprised of Craig Gold, James Evans, Stuart Lytton and our Business Representative, Tris Carpenter, reported to the Board about their membership meetings held at various DA offices throughout the County. The Directors discussed the concerns many of you have expressed with the Board.  More meetings are scheduled.

One goal of the Membership Outreach Committee and their town hall type meetings is to get feedback from the members on how the ADDA can improve and what is important to you. Another goal is to improve our dissemination of information about what we are doing and what is happening. To that end please make sure we have your current personal e-mail address because we are not permitted to utilize the County Lotus Notes e-mail system.

I think I already mentioned in a previous e-mail that I personally met with both DA Jackie Lacey and Assistant DA Pam Booth. It was very pleasant and they indicated their general support of the ADDA. I think it is fair to say that we all agreed that what is good for the Office is good for DDAs, and what is good for DDAs is good for the Office. I am confident that there is a new spirit of mutual respect and cooperation. They also made it clear to me that they want to know the rumors and anxieties and concerns of their DDAs in order to address them and dispel them if possible. So please feel free to e-mail me if you have any issues.

We briefly discussed the ongoing security screening concerns of DDAs, and I think we are pretty much aligned on that topic and acknowledge that the ultimate resolution is in the hands of the judicial administration. The ADDA formed a Committee comprised of John Colello, Lauren Naiman and Richard Ceballos to advance our concerns. I am cautiously optimistic that John and the others can make some headway. We met with Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who will soon be termed out, and he was generally quite supportive of our concerns re security and general salary expectations. The County has agreed to a comparative salary review which we are still awaiting. As to security, it seems to me that it is only a matter of time before DDAs mingling with defendants and their supporters in the funnel of screening will one day inevitably result in a clearly avoidable tragedy.

If you want to know more about the timeline for ADDA’s possible disaffiliation with AFSCME please go to our website at laadda.com and click on the President’s page. I have laid it out there.

We established the Legislative Committee which so far is comprised of James Evans, Jeff McGrath, Stuart Lytton, and Tris Carpenter. We could use some more help with this, so if you are interested please give Tris a call at (213) 252-1313.

During the California Primary Election cycle your Board was quite active in endorsing judicial candidates. Bobby Grace and James Bozajian have worked hard to be thorough in vetting candidates and to make the process fair.  With some mild disagreement, the majority believe that DDAs are uniquely positioned to meaningfully evaluate and participate in influencing this important public office. We discussed modifying our endorsement protocols for future elections to address when we will and when we won’t endorse our colleagues, whether we will endorse two DDAs running for the same seat, publishing our criteria, and perhaps forming a program to assist those who are thinking about being a judge on how to go about it. We also discussed how we can, besides endorsing, further support those we endorse. We discussed joining with police groups, probation, and victims’ rights advocates for a group endorsement. When the Committee frees up, they will start exploring alternatives and make recommendations for the next round of elections.

The Directors unanimously chose to endorse both Danette Meyers and Alan Yochelson for State Bar Board of Governors. They both expressed the need to have public sector lawyers involved in the State Bar.

We heard from and endorsed Dan Dow for San Luis Obispo County District Attorney. It was unanimous.

We tabled consideration whether to endorse in Congressional races.

It should be noted that many beyond this County seek the ADDA’s endorsement. If you would like to participate on the Endorsement Committee, please contact Bobby Grace or James Bozajian.

Depending on the outcome of the Primary Election, we discussed conducting forums during the General Election on both the Sheriff and 3rd District Board of Supervisor positions. As to the 3rd District BOS race, the Board decided not to endorse in the Primary.

A Committee which includes Michele Hannisee, Bobby Grace and Tris Carpenter is working on securing and maintaining the confidentiality of property records of Deputy District Attorneys. Michele and others are looking into services that will purge internet database information of information that identifies DDAs, as well as what role the ADDA may play in providing those services to our members in the future.

The Formation of the PAC [Political Action Committee] is a major priority of Director Eric Siddall who chairs that Committee. The consensus was we need to hurry and finalize the new By-Laws so that they include language authorizing the formation of a PAC.

We will be meeting Tuesday, 5/27 to work exclusively on the new By-Laws which is a requirement of our Affiliation Agreement with AFSCME.

The Board elected not to travel to Chicago for the AFSCME Convention in July.

The Financial Auditors presented the Hudson Report which was unanimously approved.

We formed the Promotional Policy Committee to address the concerns that members have about promotional testing and alternatives to that, and the Transfer Policy Committee to address those general concerns. We also are studying remedies to the ongoing paid parking issues. If you are interested in participating on any of these Committees, please contact Tris.

We anticipate our next newsletter will be disseminated in September. If you would like to contribute an article, please contact James Bozajian.

Your Board is comprised of unpaid volunteers working to improve the lives of our colleagues. We could use your help. Please join us by serving on a Committee. If you see a problem you want to address, you might discover that this Board wants nothing more than to help you improve conditions for all DDAs. Don’t hesitate to contact any one of us. Please visit our web page at laadda.com for more information.

~ Marc Debbaudt ~

ADDA President

President’s Update — March 2014

The ADDA had a regularly scheduled board meeting Tuesday 3/18/14.

We hired an independent contractor to serve part-time as a secretary and assist the board with various projects. Her name is Juliana Konze and her resume is impressive. She may be calling you soon to update our contact information so that we have everyone’s private email addresses.

We heard from Sheriff’s candidates Jim McDonnell and Jim Hellmold who are seeking the ADDA’s Endorsement. At the last meeting, 2/18/14, we heard from Sheriff’s candidates Todd Rogers and Bob Olmstead. The Board also voted to support the Forum and Debate for Sheriff scheduled for 4/17/14 at the Hollenbeck Youth Center. See DDA Richard Ceballos for more information. We will post and disseminate the flyers when they become available. The ADDA will submit questions to be asked of all candidates by the moderator. If you have a question you believe should be asked, please email it to ADDA Board Member Bobby Grace. The ADDA is also planning perhaps the last Sheriff debate before the primary to be held at Loyola Law School. Please See ADDA Board Member Bobby Grace for further information or to assist him.

The Board voted to form a committee to address issues concerning security screening and court access. The committee is comprised of Chairperson John Colello, Richard Ceballos and ADDA Director Loren Naiman. I had a very pleasant meeting with DA Jackie Lacey and Assistant DA Pam Booth before the ADDA meeting and we briefly discussed security screening and court access. They informed me that they are engaged in ongoing efforts to address our concerns and are quite supportive of our effort and are happy to work with our committee.

We voted to form the Membership Outreach Committee which is comprised of ADDA Executive Vice President Jeff McGrath, ADDA Treasurer James Evans, and new Board Directors Stuart Lytton and Craig Gold. Craig gold will serve as Chairperson. Please contact them concerning membership issues.

We also voted to form the PAC [Political Action Committee] which is comprised of Bobby Grace and new Board Director Eric Siddall. Eric will serve as Chairperson. Apparently, to form a PAC we have been advised that we need to amend our By-Laws, which we are also obligated to do anyway under our affiliation agreement with AFSCME. So, soon we will be submitting new By-Laws for member ratification.

A Communication Committee was formed comprised of Chairperson ADDA Board Director John Harrold, and Directors Bobby Grace and Eric Siddall. The goal is to consider how to improve our communications and whether to engage a professional communications company recommended by AFSCME to assist us.

The Board voted unanimously to endorse Hilda Solis for the 1st District Seat, Los Angles County Board of Supervisor. She is the front runner and a supporter and seems certain to prevail.

Efforts are being made by the Endorsement Committee to interview candidates for the 3rd District Seat. The Endorsement Committee is comprised of Chairperson Bobby Grace and ADDA Vice President James Bozajian.

Apparently we are somewhat popular across the state because our endorsement is also being sought by DA candidates outside of this County, and the Endorsement Committee is considering those requests.

Because of some recent controversies, I have asked the Endorsement Committee to suggest protocols to address under what circumstances we will not endorse a colleague and what we will do in the event that DDAs choose to run against each other.

We are somewhat closer to resolving the fact that we ran out of scrolls for DDA of the month and other occasions. We approved the Logo we will be be using on all future scrolls and hopefully we will soon eliminate the backlog of undelivered scrolls and have new ones ready in a timely fashion.

There was a rumor that the new Hall of Justice would accommodate DDAs in cubicles and not offices, but DA Lacey and ADA Booth informed me that, no, the DDAs assigned there will have offices.

The Board of the ADDA is comprised of volunteers. If you would like to volunteer to assist the Board in accomplishing projects of concern to your fellow deputies, please do not hesitate to contact any one of us. If you have any questions, concerns or anxieties or have heard rumors that trouble you, please let me know. DA Lacey and ADA Booth have encouraged me to communicate these to them so that they can do their best to clarify what is happening and resolve or alleviate anything that is troubling their Deputies.

I’ve asked the Directors and Officers of the ADDA to write a brief paragraph to introduce themselves to you and inform you of their goals for this year.  Later this week we will begin to email you brief statements from those who have volunteered their time to represent you on the Board.

Marc Debbaudt
ADDA President