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Jun 13, 2018

ACSS’ 12th Delegate Assembly is coming up soon!

ACSS is a member-driven organization, run by excluded state employees just like you! Every three years, elected Delegates participate in an Assembly to review and implement the bylaws and policies that govern ACSS. Delegate Assembly is also the stage where members of the Board of Directors are elected and sworn into office. If you are an ACSS member in good standing, you may nominate yourself to serve on the ACSS Board of Directors. If you would like to nominate yourself, consent forms are due to ACSS headquarters before 5pm on Wednesday June 20th! If you are an elected Delegate, Alternate or Chapter Officer, and have not RSVP'd to the event, please do so immediately!

>> Click here for more information about Delegate Assembly – documents, consent forms, important dates, detailed agenda and more!

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Jun 7, 2018

Primary Election Results - ACSS Endorsed Candidates Advance to November Election

“ACSS had another great election day with all but two ACSS-Endorsed candidates advancing to the November election under California’s unique ‘top-two’ primary system.

An ACSS-endorsed candidate advanced in 97 of 98 races, including Democrat Gavin Newsom who finished first in the Governor’s race and will face a Republican in November. ACSS was 5 out of 5 in contested campaigns for open legislative seats.”

- Ted Toppin, ACSS Legislative Advocate

Click here to view complete election results. Open seat candidates are in bold.

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May 24, 2018

Don't Forget to Vote in the Primary Election on June 5th!

Your vote matters!

Don’t forget to get out and vote in the California Primary Election on Tuesday June 5th, 2018! Help support ACSS’ Endorsed Candidates with your vote in the June Primary. Supporting these candidates and donating to the ACSS Political Action Committee are simple things you can do to ensure that the right legislators are in office to support the issues that matter to you most, like:

  • Resolving salary compaction
  • Protecting pensions
  • Ensuring fair working conditions for supervisors, managers, and confidential state employees
  • And more!

On June 5th, please vote and help ACSS Endorsed Candidates cross the finish line in these critical seats. Every vote counts!


Find your polling place.

Click here for more information on the California Primary Election.

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May 16, 2018

May Revision of the Budget: Continue Saving for the Future as Surplus Grows

Governor Jerry Brown released his May Revise of the Budget on May 11th, 2018. ACSS Legislative Advocate Ted Toppin provides relevant analysis and insight of the May Revise that may be of interest to managers, supervisors and other excluded state employees:

“The state continues to generate revenue at unprecedented levels and now it is coming in faster. In January, the surplus was predicted to be $6 billion. The surplus now is expected to be $9 billion.

The May Revise proposes saving for the future. In January, the Governor proposed to put an additional $4.4 billion into the state rainy day fund, topping it out at $13.8 billion – the constitutional limit. In the May Revise, he socks another $3.3 billion into a different reserve account.

Budget negotiations between the Administration and the Legislature will now heat up. The Governor will urge restraint. Legislators of both parties will push for billions of dollars in additional spending. Ultimately, you can expect the Governor to agree to modest increased spending while keeping his rainy day reserves. Regardless, the Legislature will pass a budget by June 15 and the Governor will sign it by June 30.

Here’s what the May Revise says about issues important to ACSS members:

State Employee Compensation

The January budget proposal included $1.2 billion ($589.5 million General Fund) for:

  • increased employee compensation
  • health care costs for active state employees
  • retiree health care prefunding for active employees

The May Revise decreases this amount by $8.1 million to reflect:

  • corrections to 2019 health rates
  • natural changes to enrollment in health and dental plan
  • updated employment information for salary increases
  • updated employment information for salary increases
  • revised pay increases for judges
  • updated costs related to the salary survey estimates for the California Highway Patrol (Bargaining Unit 5)

State CalPERS Contribution

The state’s contribution – $6.2 billion – to CalPERS is down slightly ($18 million) from the January estimate. The decline in the revise is mainly driven by:

  • CalPERS’ higher than expected investment return in 2016-17
  • the benefit of the state’s additional $6 billion pension payment in 2017-18
  • higher than projected enrollment of members under the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013, who have lower benefit formulas

Overall, pension reforms are beginning to reduce costs. The May Revise proposes no additional pension reforms.

State Health Care/Retiree Health Care

The May Revise makes no changes to the expected costs of providing state employees and state retirees health care.

State Employee Position Increases

The May Revise also reports that there is expected to be an additional 3,878 position in state government next year for a total of 210,767 in FY 2018-19.”

The Governor’s complete budget summary and draft budget can be found here: www.ebudget.ca.gov.

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May 4, 2018

Dual Endorsement: ACSS Endorses Newsom and Chiang for CA Governor

For the first time in ACSS history, gubernatorial candidates were interviewed in person by our ACSS Executive Committee at ACSS Headquarters. The Executive Committee asked each candidate key questions and listened to each one’s responses on how they would benefit ACSS members. After the meetings, ACSS chose to dually endorse both Gavin Newsom and John Chiang in their races for Governor of California. Both Newsom and Chiang promise to protect the defined benefit pensions of state employees, address salary compaction, and seek input of state supervisors and managers on how to solve these complex problems.

>> Read More...

(Click on images to view larger.)

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Apr 26, 2018

California Supreme Court to Review a Trio of Pension Cases

Protecting your pension and retirement benefits is a core principle for ACSS. Three cases pending before the State Supreme Court raise questions regarding the validity of the long standing “California Rule.” Since 1955, the courts have held under the California Rule that once pension benefits are granted to a public employee, they are vested and cannot be modified for the duration of an employee’s career.

>> Read more...

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Apr 23, 2018

ACSS Chapter Officer Elections - Online Voting is OPEN NOW!

We’re excited to announce that elections for ACSS Chapter Officer and Delegates (2018-2021 term) will be an online voting process. Online voting is OPEN NOW and runs through May 21, 2018, 11:59 PM (PST). For your ballot to count, you must complete your online ballot during that time period. Click here to view the list of Candidates for YOUR Chapter! 

ACSS is using an independent company, Survey & Ballot Systems (SBS), to host the election online. This ensures the complete confidentiality of the voting process and the accurate tallying of votes.

SBS mailed a letter to ACSS Members' home addresses on April 9th, 2018 that included online voting information with a direct link and unique login credentials.  SBS also emailed ACSS Members the voting information on April 20th, 2018. Members must complete ballots online through the direct link with their unique login credentials.

If you are an ACSS Member and have not received your email invitation or have questions, please contact ACSS at (800) 624-2137 or acss@ACSS.org.

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Apr 13, 2018

Another Successful ACSS Lobby Day!


Click here to view larger.

On March 21, 2018, ACSS members marched into the Capitol and met with legislators to discuss important issues affecting managers, supervisors and confidential state employees. Lobby Day was a resounding success with 54 members in attendance. Thanks to the dedicated members who attended, our presence at the Capitol was visible and our voices were clearly heard! For 18 consecutive years, ACSS members have participated in Lobby Day to deliver the ACSS message in person to Assemblymembers and Senators. 

>> Read more...

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Apr 4, 2018

Leave Buy-Back Program Authorized for Excluded Employees

CalHR and the Department of Finance have authorized the Excluded Employee Leave Buy-Back Program for 2017-2018. Employees designated Exempt, Supervisory, Managerial or Confidential may elect to be paid at their regular salary rate in exchange for up to 80 hours of unused leave (vacation or annual leave, personal leave, personal holiday or holiday credit). Payment is out of existing appropriations, so each department’s participation is subject to the availability of departmental funds.

No later than May 1, 2018, your department should notify you whether the department has funds to participate and how much leave, up to 80 hours, that you will be able to cash out. The notification will include a deadline to submit your request to cash out leave. Departments may issue payments as early as May, but no later than June 30, 2018.

The current authorization of up to 80 hours for excluded employees follows ACSS’ lobbying and legislative efforts in 2016 to increase the number of leave buy-back hours for excluded employees.

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Mar 29, 2018

Drug Testing Plan for Food & Agriculture Supervisors Withdrawn

The California Department of Food and Agriculture recently announced a plan to drug test employees in the new CalCannabis Licensing Unit. ACSS members were concerned with privacy issues and the testing procedures that would be utilized. While the State maintains a drug free workplace, the random or “reasonable suspicion” drug testing of employees has been limited to those in medical, correctional or peace officer settings or employees operating heavy equipment or machinery. The drug testing rules balance constitutional privacy issues with the State’s interest in protecting employees and the public.

Following a Meet and Confer with CDFA over the proposed new testing, ACSS sent a letter to the Department of Human Resources (CalHR) and CDFA requesting that they reconsider the drug testing program at CDFA. Upon receipt of ACSS’ letter, CDFA withdrew the plan to drug test the CalCannabis employees and does not plan to pursue drug testing of employees in other CDFA divisions.

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