iePolitics.com

I finally had my appointment with Dr. Belen today. It’s been a year since the county cut off my insurance three months retroactively so it’s been a year since I had seen her. The first thing I noticed was that her proclamation from the BOS was gone. I asked her about it and she said, “It’s been seven years. I’m over it.” At six years she was definitely NOT over it. So I guess seven is the magic number for getting over one’s experience working for the county. I really missed not hearing Mark Uffer stories today. I felt like something was missing!
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Mark Uffer’s salary increase “bump” of nearly $30,000 is an astounding 11 1/2 per cent. Comparing that to a rank-and-file county employee working full-time, 40 hours per week for 52 weeks a year that is a salary increase of an astounding $14.42 per hour. The salary increase is astounding when you compare it to the rank-and-file county employee’s average annual salary. I’m sure there are county employees at and below this astounding $30,000 per year amount who are barely scraping by. And the severance compensation, nearly $300,000 cash plus generous benefits, is also obscene. When the tax-paying public reads about stuff like this I’m sure they believe they are being ripped-off.
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Well I have to be up at 5 a.m., which explains why there are no news clippings on the site tonight nor any new entries til now. Unfortunately I cannot sleep and typing a blog entry on a Blackberry usually proves to be a good way to make me drowsy.

So why can’t I sleep? It’s no secret that few days go by where someone previously unknown to me contacts me about workplace harassment, or unethical behavior by a superior, or misuse of county property, or whatever. Most of the time I just say, “join the club” or “here’s the number to the fraud hotline,” but sometimes I want to say “go get a life” or laugh with them or cry with them. Then there is that occassional one that upsets me and I can’t get it off my mind. Such is the case tonight.
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Well I started receiving copies of the email that was sent to those employees who were selected by Mark Uffer to serve on the Employee Advisory Committee. A little over 40 employees were selected.
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I received this email a few minutes ago. I didn’t change a thing except to delete the sender’s name. I wanted it to be seen for a couple of reasons, but especially regarding the comment about Mark and Josie. Mark and Josie, do you NOT understand that Linda Haugen and Nancy Swanson are doing exactly what they did for Service First and that is intimidate employees? Do you believe that employees aren’t scared to death of having you visit because they know if they tell you the truth they will be subjected to harassment, intimidation, and likely terminated? If you were really interested in finding out what was going on, you would not have told Linda Haugen so that she could threaten employees before you got there.

WHERE DO I FIND IT ON THE BLOG?..ALL I SEE IS ABOUT THE SUICIDE AND.. OH MY GOD HOW SAD!!!…I HOPE THE FAMILY GOES AFTER THE MANAGER REALLY…I KNOW MANY WHO ARE STRESSED AND DEPRESSED OVER WHAT MANAGEMENT DOES TO THEM AND HOW UPPER MANAGEMENT SEEMS TO GET HEIR JOLLIES OUT OF IT ALL.. UFFER INCLUDED… WE’VE BEEN TOLD TO EXPECT SURPRISE DESK VISITS FROM JOSIE GONZALES AND MARK UFFER IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS AND TO ACT ACCORDINGLY.. YEA LIKE RIGHT!!!!THE CASES ARE OVERWELMING THE TIME FRAMES ARE RIDICULOUS AND UPPER MANAGEMENT IS SORRIER THAN EVER…SHARON I JUST DO NOT KNOW THE END RESULT FOR ALL..IF YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE IN MDLR POCKET OR NANCY’S AND LINDA H I GUESS YOU’LL BE OKAY I AM NOT AND WOULDN’T WANT TO BE,.. YOU BE CAREFUL LADY PLEASE…

Last night I ended up talking with Mark for a couple minutes, and after looking at my post once again, I decided it came out wrong. Not that he said anything, but he seemed surprised by a comment I made to him. The post was honestly meant to let him know we appreciate the wishes and hope he will be more communicative in the coming year. With all the uncertainty I think we need more assurances than ever that everything is being done to keep the hits as light as possible.

Anyway, Mark, honest engine, I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas!

It was nice to see that Mark sent us all holiday greetings along with some assurances about our budgetary situation. Seriously, it is always good when he communicates with us. And to Mark’s daughter, tell your dad we wish him and your whole family a happy holiday season too.
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We’ve been talking about this on the blog since before the contract was settled. I received another phone call from someone tonight who is very involved with SBPEA claiming that Chicken Man is negotiating with the county for a four-day, eight-hour-a-day work week. In other words, we would all have our pay cut by 16 hours a pay period. For someone making $20 an hour, that would be a $320 cut per paycheck.
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Tomorrow’s the big day. Neil Derry will be sworn in. Gary Ovitt will become chairman. None of my best sources will tell me if Vice Chairman is going to Brad or Josie. We’ll see if the wealthy white boys win out or not.
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It seems that almost every day someone asks me about either decertification of SBPEA, the meeting with Mark Kirk, and/or the EAC not that any one of those issues has anything to do with the other. This is where we are at.

Decertification cannot take place for a little over a year. There are at least two international unions interested in six of the seven units — I don’t think anyone cares about Supervising Nurses. They are willing to provide the staff, etc., for the campaign. I expect the campaign to take many months as there will have to be several thousand cards signed in a 30-day period when that time comes. Some meetings have already taken place and we’re trying to get more going but no one has had time. We’ll provide the details either on the blog or through word of mouth when the time comes. Ridding ourselves of SBPEA is not a moot issue. As a matter of fact, it is very high on the priority list. (more…)

Things will be changing on Monday in San Bernardino County. Supervisor-elect Neil Derry will be sworn in as Third District Supervisor. Gary Ovitt will become Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. I’ve heard various rumors about who will be Vice Chairman and I don’t know what has been decided, although I’m sure by now the backroom deal has been made.
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Today I faced a minor dilemma in that there are a couple of less-than-kind comments on the EAC post regarding Mark Uffer. First, it’s Thanksgiving and I don’t necessarily like the negativity. Of course, the comments came from TAD employees who are so used to being beaten down and abused that I like to allow them to vent here.

Ultimately, I decided to allow the comments. However, I need to add my two cents. I had a conversation with someone today about Mark. I once again had to reassure that person that I don’t hate Mark. I don’t dislike Mark. I will say it again. He is actually a very interesting person to have a conversation with. No matter how much he may hate me and no matter how incredibly frustrated I get with him, I still like him. I also respect much of what he has done as CAO.
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Once again the county is messing with me. Once again I realize that Mark’s “Service First” presentation was nothing but hot air.

During one of my conversations with Mark I mentioned Dr. Bellins. (I may not be spelling her name correctly.) She was a county employee for 26 years and then was screwed over by the county. In her office at Kaiser, her desk is up against the wall, facing it. Right in front of her at eye level she has her gold gilded framed proclamation from the county honoring her years of service.

Every time I see her and start talking about Mark and the county, she points that out to me. I think she keeps it where it’s at to always remind herself of what the county did to her. She has a lot of compassion for the county employees who end up in her office. She is also quick to say that she makes a lot more money now that she works for Kaiser.

Today I decided it’s time to get some meds so I called and made an appointment with her. I am not thrilled with this particular department at Kaiser but it is nice to have a doctor who can completely understand what Mark and others are doing because they did it to her first. I’m looking forward to my appointment so I have someone to commiserate with!

You know, the level of vindictiveness in this county still ceases to amaze me.

The first time I met with Mark Uffer we talked about county news coverage for just a moment. He complained that the only thing that gets press is the negative news. There are no two ways about it: scandal sells. And the county of San Bernardino has provided the press with a prolific amount of scandal consistently over a period of many years.

I’ll be the first to admit that we see very little in the media about all the good the county does. It’s usually complaints about what we don’t do, how much money we make, how big our retirements will be and how many holidays we have off. But then again we have county administrators that refer to us “turds” and worse, so I’m not sure how we can expect much respect from the public.
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On the old blog I wrote about the fact that Mark Uffer did a favor for me at a time when I really needed it. Today I got two bills for it totaling over $200. I guess things never change in this county!