Joints feeling as rusty as the Tin Man’s? Follow Delores Turner, Barbara Dillon, and Denyce Holsey down the yellow brick road and you’ll be feeling as good as new in no time! Meet old friends and new in the Portola Hotel & Spa lobby at 6:30 a.m., and head out for a walk along beautiful Monterey Bay. When you return, enjoy a continental breakfast in the Portola lobby, or take your breakfast up to your room and prepare for a full day of Conference sessions.

Part 1 – Understanding Crucial Scope Of Bargaining Issues

This popular annual review of the key scope of bargaining cases will focus on the critical role scope of bargaining issues play in negotiations during an economic downturn. This session will provide valuable information and insights to help you understand which issues are mandatory subjects of bargaining, which are not, and why it is crucial in these difficult times to know the difference. In addition to reviewing new PERB and court decisions about scope of bargaining, the session will address:

• Management prerogatives to reduce costs that are outside the scope of bargaining;
• Critical distinctions between the duty to bargain an agency’s decision and the duty to bargain the effects of a management decision; and
• Practical advice regarding why, how, and when to raise scope of bargaining issues during negotiations and impasse. This session will prepare you for a deeper understanding and appreciation of the practical advice provided in Part 2 regarding negotiating and implementing “take backs.”

Allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, and other worker misconduct, including financial fraud, must be investigated. When an employee complains, a subsequent grievance and litigation are unfortunate probabilities if the complaint is not investigated quickly and fully. Public agencies have added obligations and reporting requirements that also must be considered in an investigation. Come away from this session with the tools to conduct solid, defensible, and thorough investigations that will stand up in arbitration or court.

This session will discuss future trends in health reform and what the expectations are in California and the United States. It is widely anticipated that significant changes will occur for both actives and retirees that impact employers. Join Chief Strategy Officer Henry Loubet as he makes projections for the future, focusing on cost, quality, transparency, and access.

Hiring is one of the most crucial employment actions a public employer performs. But in your quest to hire the best employees, you must navigate through a minefield of liability. Seemingly innocuous advertisements designed to attract the perfect employee or innocent questions that you ask applicants during interviews may violate a host of federal and state laws. Unwary public employers may fall prey to liability during pre-employment tests, medical examinations, and background checks. A friendly, harmless inquiry may lead to a lawsuit. So what can you do to make sure you obtain all the information you need while steering clear of the legal roadblocks? This informative session will alert you to the most common missteps made in the hiring process, as well as provide an approach to obtaining valuable hiring information while avoiding potentially costly pitfalls.

Litigation of employment disputes is a high stakes game. Litigation can be disruptive, risky, and divisive, as well as extraordinarily costly. Litigation can easily cost an employer hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees for their own counsel, and often risk multi-million dollar verdicts, coupled with the indignation of paying the plaintiffs’ attorneys fees. Too often, public agencies are prey in the plaintiff’s lawyer’s hunt for the prize of early and comfortable retirement.

Mediation has evolved as the most effective means for reducing the financial and systemic risks of litigation. Properly structured, it can provide a forum in which employee disputes can be resolved through a fact-based process that fosters reasonable results. But for it to work, it requires special skill and intensive preparation. Join this distinguished panel – including practitioner Jonathan Holtzman, founding partner of Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai – and learn what to expect in the mediation process and how to increase your chances for a fair resolution.

Ripped from today’s headlines, this session will explore the top 10 ways employers are violating employee privacy. Topics covered will include: handling of employee medical information; scope of drug testing programs; monitoring e-mail, cell phone, pagers, and GPS; regulating off duty conduct; and searches, investigations, and surveillance. Learn how to avoid being the front-page story!

Daily overtime. Misclassifications. Meal and rest periods. For the lawyers who prosecute wage and hour class actions in California, business is booming. In recent years, many of these lawyers have turned their attention to the public sector. In a 2009 case handled by this session’s presenters, a California Court of Appeal held that state overtime and meal period requirements do not apply to the public sector. The Court's published decision is based on several principles of statutory construction, which are broadly beneficial to public agencies. Based on these principles, this session will tackle the question, “Which of California's wage and hour laws apply to the public sector?” At the conclusion of this session, you’ll be able to intelligently advise your agency when it faces wage and hour claims based on California law.

Feeling stressed by regulations, an ever-increasing workload, burned out coworkers, or just routine, everyday hassles at home or in the office? Treat yourself to this session with humor expert Kathleen Passanisi and find out why laughter really is good medicine -- especially in the workplace.

Learn how to develop your sense of humor and use it as a creative force, communication tool, stress reducer, and energizer. Develop a new perspective and pick up a valuable tool for improving your health, your outlook, and your professional performance.

Learn to... tell the difference between health and hurtful humor; relieve stress through laughter; improve creativity and productivity through humor; enhance quality service by putting joy back in the job; encourage stronger teamwork and improve morale by creating fun at work; and understand the relationship between perspective and change, and learn to make choices that improve the quality of life.

Part 2 – Negotiating And Implementing “Take Backs”

With the thorough understanding that you gain in Part 1 of the importance of scope of bargaining issues that are critical in these tough economic times, you’ll be ready in Part 2 to learn how to maximize management flexibility and avoid unfair labor practice challenges when you reduce services and implement cost saving measures such as reducing service to the public, closing services, using volunteers, and implementing layoffs, furloughs, or workforce reorganizations. You’ll also learn practical strategies for negotiating and, if necessary, unilaterally implementing salary and benefit reductions and other “take backs.”

A human resources strategic plan is designed with participation from key players in the organization. The strategic plan provides an opportunity for consensus on project management and helps direct an HR department through the maze of conflicting priorities. A well-structured strategic planning process is an excellent team-building tool and produces a road map to an organization’s future. Installing a continuous quality improvement program will enhance taking the step from planning to implementation. By using both a strategic plan and quality improvement program, you improve services to your constituents and empower staff at the same time. Come learn how!

In an environment of reductions in force and an aging workforce, public employers are uniquely susceptible to age discrimination claims. Public employees often stay in their jobs longer and evaluations may not have as much impact. As a result, public employees may reach a point in their careers where they cease advancing yet continue to age, which can lead to claims that there is a causal connection between the two.

In this session you’ll learn cutting-edge tools for helping to defend against age-based claims. In addition to learning how courts have addressed recent age discrimination claims, you’ll learn practical skills such as: (1) identifying potential pitfalls, including ageist remarks and stereotypes; (2) analyzing or explaining data relating to impacts of employment decisions; (3) implementing processes to reduce exposure to age-based claims; and (4) conducting effective performance evaluations.

Come and learn effective strategies for maximizing your position in litigation through deposition and trial testimony. Gain insight from an experienced trial attorney regarding the techniques and strategies used by questioning attorneys, and benefit from the examples of both effective and potentially harming testimony. This session will address questions and topics such as: (1) how to properly prepare for your testimony; (2) common mistakes in testifying; (3) what to do when you think your answers will hurt your case; (4) whether you can ever say, “I don’t know”; and (5) what to do when the questioning attorney asks leading questions that don’t allow you to explain your answer.

Join these experienced attorneys for a soups-to-nuts discussion of employee discipline in the public sector. Learn the answers to questions such as: Why do we discipline? What rules have to be followed? What should be included in a discipline notice? What is a Skelly hearing? How do we conduct one? Who should be present? Should we tape record? What are Weingarten rights? What is a Lubey hearing? What are some common pitfalls in particular disciplinary violations? When is an employee entitled to a post discipline appeal, and what is the format for the appeal?

“POBR, FBOR… huh?” If you frequently work with your agency’s public safety departments and find yourself asking this question, then this workshop is for you. Geared toward “civilian” human resource managers and technicians who work with public safety departments at their agencies, but who are not fully aware of the unique laws and procedures that apply to public safety employees, this session will also include an overview of the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act (POBR) and the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act (FBOR).

During the past several years, a movement to trim public sector pensions has gained traction in California. The current economic downturn has added momentum to the reform movement at the state and local level. This program will focus on how reformers view the extent and nature of the problem, and what they are proposing as solutions, including:

• Current underfunding of PERS, local pension plans, and retiree medical benefits;
• Sustainability of current pension and OPEB benefits;
• Options for reform in public sector pensions, including the establishment of a two tier system; and
• Roadblocks to reform and the role of labor relations.

At the beginning of this year, new FMLA rules went into effect that required many revisions to a public agency’s leave policies and procedures. During this session, you’ll receive a high-level overview of the changes to the FMLA rules, and how to coordinate the new FMLA rules with existing -- and in some instances contradictory -- rules under the California Family Rights Act and California Pregnancy Disability Leave Law.

Are you interested in developing a recruitment pipeline and effectively reducing your vacancy rate, especially in “difficult to recruit” classes? Then join us to learn the practical steps with proven results instituted in Solano County to get quality new employees on board fast and efficiently. We’ll provide checklists, sample process workflow, and practice tips to show how you, too, can readily implement these same time and money saving practices in your agency. We’ll tell you what worked and what didn’t. Learn how to streamline your process, make every action count, and speed up response time for physicals, drug testing, fingerprinting, and background and reference checks.

Who are the future leaders in your organization? Do they have the tools to lead now? Will they be ready when the time comes? A viable Succession Plan is critical for sustaining knowledge and leadership continuity, and for minimizing expensive, time-consuming executive recruitment and selection efforts. Join us as we share our action plan for developing and launching the Solano County Succession Program. Learn the steps to identify core competencies for managers. We’ll share our Leadership Development Model and explain how it was created. Learn how a formal development program and Talent Review Process were created and launched to support a leadership pipeline for years to come.

In 2007, the County of Sonoma faced a significant OPEB liability. Premised on 100% retiree medical coverage for retiree plus dependents in any county medical plan, this liability placed extreme stress on the county and threatened its future ability to fund salaries and services to the community. After months of education and joint labor management committee meetings, the county implemented a series of negotiated agreements and unilateral changes, reducing its retiree medical coverage to 85% of the lowest priced plan and finally to $500 per retiree per month, reducing the county’s OPEB liability by half. In this interactive and dynamic presentation by the multi-disciplinary team that made it happen, learn how the county used rigorous analyses, assiduous employee/retiree education processes, and fact-based negotiation techniques to achieve systemic change in the county’s retiree medical benefits and save the county millions in annual contributions.

It wouldn’t be CALPELRA without the Labor Relations Game Show! Come to this lively, interactive session and test your knowledge on a variety of labor relations issues… not only will you gain some valuable insights, but you may also leave with some goodies based on your correct responses.

Join Liliana Salazar as she provides a year-end review of federal and state developments affecting employee benefits, including the COBRA Premium Subsidy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act(ARRA), Family and Medical Leave Act, Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, Mental Health Parity Act, New HIPAA Privacy and Security Requirements and health care reform.

Would you read the report if you didn’t have to? Join the “first lady of labor relations” and published author Madge Blakey as she addresses the impact and importance of the first paragraph; the beginning, middle, and end of an effective report; and using statistics to make your point. Bureaucratic blather begone! Your writing defines you. Learn how to make it pop!

Attending this conference is a great way to build or expand your professional network. If this is your first time at the conference, or if you just want to do some old fashion networking, join your colleagues for a fun evening at one of Monterey’s tasty eateries. Dinner is no host, but several Program Committee members will attend and facilitate dinner arrangements. Please drop by the Portola Room as soon as possible to confirm your reservation.