Here's What Happened During the June 2024 D.A. LMC Meeting

Dear OCEA member,

Your District Attorney Labor Management Committee met with D.A. management June 6, 2024. As you may know, the Labor Management Committee is a collaborative partnership between OCEA and D.A. management to achieve agency-wide goals, propose improvements to workplace processes, and resolve broad issues.

You were represented by OCEA stewards Paralegal Cynthia Pena, Deputy Public Administrator Luis Arevalos, and Attorney’s Clerk Maria Garcia. OCEA Labor Relations Representative Linda Meyer and OCEA Organizer Alisha Greene were also in attendance representing OCEA.

DA representatives included Chief Assistant District Attorney Keith Bogardus, Director of Administrative Services Matt Pettit, and Senior Human Resources Manager Hetal Patel.

Several items were discussed at the meeting including the following: Senior Paralegal Positions; Internal Staff Development; Vacancies; Background Checks; Server Issues in the Osbourne Building; and more.

Please read below for more information regarding these issues.

Senior Paralegal Positions
The office is currently looking at hiring a potential 8 to 10 Senior Paralegal positions. This first round of recruitment will be internal, looking for candidates to promote from within. The DA's office will host a presentation for anyone interested in this position before opening recruitment. If you have questions for us to pass along as that presentation is prepared, please contact Cynthia Pena at cynthia.pena@ocdapa.org or Alisha Greene at AGreene@ocea.org.

Internal Staff Development
Your steward team also brought up how important it is for staff to be able to develop individual skillsets to promote internally at the DA’s office. They suggested some ideas for internal development and asked management to keep this item in mind as an important piece in keeping positions filled and recruiting talent from within.

Vacancies
We asked the department to provide an update on vacancies at every LMC meeting so we can discuss any areas with large vacancy numbers. So far, it seems that positions are being filled and overall vacancies are down.

Server Issues in the Osbourne Building
Your OCEA stewards raised issues with the server in the Osbourne Building that led to the system crash and lost work. Management staff said they were unaware and will look into the issue. If you have any specifics you would like to be relayed, please contact one of your OCEA stewards.

We also told D.A. management about issues with Body Worn Camera Protective Orders not being filed on time, asked them to consider 4/10 Options for Scheduling, discussed the amount of time it takes to complete background checks, and discussed the potential creation of a “Bring Your Child to Work” Day.

Thank you to all members who submitted issues. If your issue was not addressed at this meeting, it is because we wanted to give it more time to be properly researched before bringing it to the LMC. Our next meeting will be in September 2024.

Regarding the LMC, we need representation from many areas within the D.A. including Administration, the Bureau, and Program Management. If you would like to join the LMC from one of these areas, or you would like to submit an issue, please contact OCEA Senior Organizer Alisha Greene at agreene@ocea.org.

In Solidarity,

OCEA

Publication Date: June 13, 2024