Correctional Officer Association of Delaware

C.O.A.D.

Blue Hen Corporate Center

566 South Bay Street, Suite 4kk

Dover, DE 19901

Http://www.truetoblue.org

Office (302) 734-8061

Fax (302) 734-8062

The July & August Updates…

Meeting with the Governor – 9 July 2003

Present From COAD – Allan Deal, David Knight, Tammy Ayers, Betty Ford, J.R. Morris, Dean Jester, Micki Eskridge, Lisa David, Allen Pedrick and Kevin Rolph

Present From NULEA –Thomas Ridgley and Bill Wharton

I would now like to publicly thank former Representative Dave Brady, Representative Bethany Hall-Long, Representative Dennis Williams, Mark Brainard, and Margie Connor for their help in getting that meeting set up. We all felt that it was a good FIRST meeting, and we look forward to the ones in the future to discuss issues concerning officers. Further efforts are currently being planned.

Some items that were discussed include pay, retirement, benefits, and communicable disease right-to-know. I must admit that this last item is a pet of mine. It will take considerable effort due to the Federal HIPA law that was recently enacted, however, I will soon be undertaking efforts to contact our Federal legislators to discuss what can be done about it.
- Kevin

Contract Negotiations – 10 July 2003

Present From COAD – Allan Deal, Tammy Ayers, Betty Ford, J.R. Morris, Dean Jester, Micki Eskridge, Lisa David, Allen Pedrick and David Knight

Present From NULEA –Thomas Ridgley and Bill Wharton

Present From the State - Jerry Cutler, Allen Machtinger, Dave Hall, Jerry Platt, Rick Kearney, Tom Carroll and Raphael Williams

Items that the State addressed:

Article 8’s language, Article 7 Probationary periods, Institutional Designations, Article 10 language

Institutional Designations – For Maintenance and Food Service the State is requesting to regionalize. (22.3 – Language) Also looking at article 32

Grievance Procedure Article 8 –State would like to state only one representative from the bargaining unit.

Contract Negotiations – 15 July 2003

Present From COAD – Allan Deal, James Kahoe, Betty Ford, J.R. Morris, Dean Jester, Micki Eskridge, Lisa David, Allen Pedrick and David Knight

Present From NULEA –Thomas Ridgley and Bill Wharton

Present From the State - Jerry Cutler, Allen Machtinger, Dave Hall, Jerry Platt, Rick Kearney and Raphael Williams

Probationary Periods – State requests that COAD explained why the three-month reduction in the probation period was wanted. State wants a unilateral ability to extend probation periods.

State had requested a 9-month probationary period with unilateral 3-month probation. In exchange, after 6 months, the probationary employees could bid.

Contract Negotiations – 23 July 2003

Present From COAD – Allan Deal, James Kahoe, Betty Ford, J.R. Morris, Dean Jester, Micki Eskridge, Lisa David and Allen Pedrick

Present From NULEA –Thomas Ridgley and Bill Wharton

Present From the State - Jerry Cutler, Allen Machtinger, Dave Hall, Jerry Platt, Rick Kearney and Raphael Williams

Signed off on article 6 – Probationary Period

Signed off on article 8 – Grievance Procedure

Contract Negotiations – 29 July 2003

Present From COAD – Allan Deal, James Kahoe, Betty Ford, J.R. Morris, Dean Jester, Micki Eskridge, Lisa David, Allen Pedrick and David Knight

Present From NULEA –Thomas Ridgley and Bill Wharton

Present From the State - Jerry Cutler, Allen Machtinger, Dave Hall, Jerry Platt, Rick Kearney and Raphael Williams

Article 50 – Flextime and Compressed Workweek Schedules – The need for definition requires that we hold this article – Tabled.

Article 34 – COAD presented counter to Performance Review

Signed off on article 46 - State Information Provision

The State feels that the negotiation sessions are moving a great speed. COAD feels that the State is dragging it out.

Governors Fund-Raiser – 30 July 2003

Present From COAD - Allan Deal, Dave Knight, Dean Jester, Tammy Ayers, JR Morris and Kevin Rolph

We spent about 15 minutes total time speaking with Governor Minner and about 20 minutes speaking with Lt. Governor Carney on various issues. Also in attendance were Representative Helene Keeley, who sits on the House Corrections Committee, and former Representative Dave Brady, among others. It was important to our ongoing Legislative efforts that we had a good presence there.

Task Force Meeting – 13 August 2003

Bureau Chief Howard opened the meeting. He would like to elevate the status of C/O as a career.

The different committees were then asked to give their recommendations regarding their subcommittee reports. Below are the highlights:

SALARY/CLASSIFICATION

1. Increase Hazard Duty Pay; $1920 a year for the next two years – short term (approx. cost $1.8M)

2. Horizontal movement through pay ranges – long term

3. Increase minimum salary to 85% of midpoint & leveling up of existing employees – long term (approx. cost $1.105M)

TRADITIONAL BENEFITS

1. Supplemental Benefits

2. Sick Leave Incentives
• Pay for not using (may need legislative action)
• Pay out at separation

Also consider either getting out of Merit System or approaching Legislature about Merit Rule variance/exclusion

RECOGNITION/TRAINING/MENTORING

1. New Rank Structure

2. Training Program

3. Recognition

PENSION

1. 25 year retirement – short term
2. 20 year retirement – long term
3. Drop Plan – long term (approx. cost $4.4m)

After discussions on all the points, all recommendations were ranked as to importance.

1. Salary

· Increase HD pay

· Horizontal Movement through pay range

· Starting salary to 85% of midpoint and leveling up

· New Rank Structure

2. Pension

· 25 year retirement

· Drop Program

· 20 year retirement

· Explore leaving Merit System and/or Pension Plan

3. Supplemental Benefits

· Disability, vision, prepaid legal, dental, auto insurance, etc.

· Incentive program for sick leave

4. Recognition/Career Development

· Training

· Recognition

The final meeting will be held on September 24^th, 9:30am in Room 300 of the Administration Building.

The final Committee Report will be read and approved on that date.

Contract Negotiations – 28 August 2003

Present From COAD – Allan Deal, Tammy Ayers, Betty Ford, J.R. Morris, Dean Jester, Micki Eskridge, Lisa David, Allen Pedrick and David Knight

Present From NULEA –Thomas Ridgley and Bill Wharton

Present From the State - Jerry Cutler, Allen Machtinger, Dave Hall, Jerry Platt, Rick Kearney, Tom Carroll and Raphael Williams

Questions posed by the state – flexible work schedules – similar to the State Police – COAD countered the argument and stated the need for some to have secondary jobs to make ends meet due to poor pay and daycare would be difficult if not impossible for some.

Counter from the State on:

• Work Schedules – Article 25
• Personnel Records – Article 35
• Hours of Work – Article 24

Questions regarding changes in the Merit Rule Addendum to the contract: “Can you enforce the old Merit Rule after it was changed by the State?”

COAD Presented the State with COAD’s response to article 25 and 35

NOTE: Last Minute Additions

NULEA violates its service agreement with COAD. On September 2, 2003 at 2125 JC Stamps and William Wharton had a disagreement over pay issues. During this disagreement JC Stamps made inflammatory remarks, which escalated the incident to the point that JC Stamps fired William Wharton. This action was made after he had been reminded that William Wharton, Thomas Ridgley and JC Stamps had been a “Package Deal”. This “Package Deal” was instituted during the Union Meeting on January 21, 2003. The vote had been 49 to 0 for the NULEA package in the morning meeting and 26 to 0 in the evening meeting.

Mr. Wharton, upon the request of the President, remained on call as a back up representative to hearings already scheduled up to that point because of a fear that Mr. Stamps would not attend nor designate a representative. Mr. Stamps did not show at, nor did he make contact to arrange a substitute for those hearings. Had Mr. Wharton not volunteered his time, 31 members would have been left out in the cold without professional representation. NULEA (JC Stamps) failed to provide representation, and therefore violated their service agreement with COAD. At no time has Mr. Stamps contacted the COAD office to find out what was needed.

The COAD Executive Board had an emergency meeting on Monday 9/8/2003 to discuss the situation. After going over the entire situation, the COAD Executive Board contacted Attorney John Brady and discussed our options with him. After more lengthy discussion, it was suggested that we give NULEA notice that they have violated the service agreement and that due to numerous violations, we would not need their services any longer. It was also suggested that we hire Thomas Ridgley and William Wharton on directly as employees of COAD. This discussion was brought on based on the fact that NULEA (JC Stamps) was paid a substantial amount of money for services that we cannot have due to restrictions of the PHRST system. We were supposed to have supplemental insurances provided by NULEA (JC Stamps), and due to a lack of ability to have a check off for our paychecks we could not obtain them. Also, NULEA (JC Stamps) was supposed to provide death benefits, membership cards, and training, of which, we have not seen despite numerous requests.

After discussing the cost of maintaining the service agreement with NULEA, we decided to hire Mr. Wharton and Mr. Ridgley on as employees. The major reasons for this decision are as follow:

1. Mr. Wharton and Mr. Ridgley have performed to our satisfaction in doing what they were hired to do. They have been where we needed them, when we needed them, and done their jobs in an outstanding fashion.

2. They had no control over the discrepancies caused by Mr. Stamps or NULEA.

3. Their knowledge and expertise have proven to be invaluable to our organization. We have a 97% success rate for grievances. This is largely due to their expertise and professionalism.

4. Why pay for a service agreement when we can have the key components of that service agreement employed by our union, under our direct control at all times, and save a tremendous amount of money (about $160,000 a year) and trim some fat from our operating budget.

5. Governor Minner and State personnel informed us that due to current restrictions in the PHRST system, we couldn’t obtain a check-off box on our paychecks until roughly 2005. Supplemental insurances are not available to us at this time and cannot be obtained. Why pay for something we cannot have? (This is not the fault of NULEA or Mr. Stamps, honest effort was made in obtaining the check-off)

6. We are in the middle of contract negotiations and are about 75% complete. We do not in any way want to interrupt the process in any way. Things are going quite well at this point and we are happy with the increase in progress as of this time. We are averaging 1 negotiating session every week.

Long story short, we made an emergency decision in the hopes that we could continue the representation that we have been receiving, and to maintain the smooth flow of our grievance process. In the process, we are saving a large amount of money and continuing what we have. We believe that this unfortunate turn of events will actually turn out to our advantage.

Next Union Meeting:

Meeting Date:	Thursday	September 25, 2003
Meeting Times:	10:00am & 6:30 pm

Meeting Site:

Across from the Union Office in the Blue Hen Mall

This is an extremely important meeting

Please Plan on Attending

AGENDA:

I. Call to Order/Prayer/Introductions Minutes

II. Minutes

III. Financial Report

IV. Legislative Committee Report

V. COAD Representative Report

VI. Old Business

1. Service agreement with NULEA

2. Pact fund

3. Judicial panel position opening NC county

VII. New Business

1. Letters of invitation to fair share members
2. Donation policy
3. New member’s application from fair share to full share.
4. Question/answer session

VIII. Close of Meeting

Blue Hen Mall

Corporate Center

655 Bay Road, Suite 4kk
Dover, DE 19901

www.truetoblue.org

Office (302) 734-8061

Fax (302) 734-8062

Personal Information Update:

If your personal information has changed, please fill out this update form and forward back to the Union Office or your Institutional Vice-President. This way we can keep our records current.

Thank You.

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