I trust that you had a wonderful holiday season and that you rang in 2024 surrounded by your friends and loved ones. I wish you all peace, prosperity and good health as we embark on a new year that will undoubtedly be filled with challenges as well as opportunities.

The new year is a time for reflecting on our past achievements and looking toward the future of our great organization. I want to start by thanking our chapter presidents for their unwavering dedication. Their support was integral to the accomplishments we made last year, such as our victory in the “walk time” case, in which we secured a 6.25% salary increase, and a 1% longevity resolution. I would also like to thank our members for trusting the process and understanding that the work we do takes a lot of time and commitment. And last but not least, I have immense gratitude for our staff, who consistently go above and beyond in providing our members with outstanding customer service. I’m excited to build off the momentum of our successes and get back to business for our membership.

We started 2024 strong by welcoming four new Board members, who were elected in December and began serving their terms in January. I’m thrilled to have them aboard and for them to bring their fresh insights, ideas and creativity to the table. Together, we will take our organization to new and even greater heights.

This year, we will continue working toward getting arbitration for excluded employees. We have put forth arbitration legislation to rectify this issue year after year, and it has been shot down by the governor’s office each time. Excluded employees, including and specifically first- and second-line supervisors, do not have the ability to arbitrate, resulting in many labor issues being litigated in court. Taxpayers are responsible for footing the bill for the legal expenses for these cases, which could have been resolved through arbitration.

An example of this is our recent “walk time” case, which resulted in a $155 million settlement of wage and hour claims for current and retired sergeants and lieutenants. If excluded employees had arbitration, we likely would never have gotten to that point, and the case would have been resolved a lot earlier. I think it’s important for taxpayers to realize that their dollars are going toward offsetting costs that incurred over 14 to 15 years because the state was reluctant to compensate us the same as the correctional officers. We will keep our members apprised of our efforts in improving the excluded employee grievance process.

Another issue we will be focusing on is supervisor transfers. I strongly believe that supervisors should have the ability to transfer without having to interview. It’s mind-boggling that supervisors have to compete for transfers against others who have never served in supervisory roles, and that we get beat out for these positions because of this process. Officers have the ability to transfer, yet supervisors do not. This idea needs to be presented again to CDCR, as they need to understand that supervisors have lives outside of their jobs and that life changes may arise that make transfers a necessity. To have to compete with such effort for transfers when we’ve already been doing the job is, quite frankly, a slap in the face. We hope to correct this issue.

We will also continue striving for a better health care package for our members. Our excluded employees should not have to be forced to belong to a competitive organization in order to get a better package. They should be able to select a health care package that best fits their needs and the needs of their families without having to pay dual membership to two separate organizations. That’s unacceptable. Our members should be able to select a health care package with the options available for supervisors.

I will discuss these and many other goals with you at the CCSO Conference on April 26–27 in Sacramento. This will be an opportunity for us to collaborate, network and talk about what we as an organization will be facing in the future. We look forward to featuring informative speakers, educating our members on ways that they can better serve CCSO and providing a platform for our chapter presidents to touch base with the members on the issues that are affecting them. I hope to see you all there. Stay safe!